The Next Sannin
by SelenetheNerd
Summary: Raised from birth by Tsunade of the Sannin and her apprentice Shizune, Naruto seeks to make his own mark in the world. However, the medical prodigy doesn't care enough to be the Hokage. He wants to follow in the footsteps of his mother and become the next of the Sannin.
1. Chapter 1

"First clause,"

Naruto dodged a boulder that only narrowly missed his shoulder. Backpedalling, he soon found his back pressed up against a tree. Another tree came flying at him at a speed that would've been unseen to the eyes of a civilian. He didn't bother channeling chakra into his fist as he punched the once living thing, splitting it in two before it could kill him. By Kami, his mother was insane.

"No medic nin shall ever stop treatment until the lives of their party members have come to an end." he recited, his face a stoic mask.

A flash of black came to his right before something shiny glimmered in the sunlight. He turned just in time to see a woman with black hair and black eyes flash her arm from beneath long sleeves. The woman seemed to pull something, but the weird contraption on her forearm fired several poisonous senbon. By the Gods above, his sister was insane as well! Naruto drew a kunai and deflected the senbon, only to find that the woman disappeared before he could retaliate. 'Damn it,'

"Second clause,"

Looking up, he saw a flash of yellow and green flying towards him at an impossible speed. Her leg was raised well over her head, prepared to deliver a devastating axe kick. Naruto held both hands over his head, her slamming foot blocked by his forearms. He sank into the ground, a crater forming from the impact of the strike. Had he been anyone else, he would not have survived that attack.

"No medic ninja shall ever stand on the front lines."

Already she blurred out of sight. The dark haired woman was back, throwing a barrage of vicious punches and kicks. Naruto blocked each of the strikes, retaliating when he could. He managed to score a glancing blow to her shoulder, but he held back his monstrous strength. Despite the two woman trying to actually brutalize him, he didn't want to harm either of them.

"Third clause,"

"No medic ninja shall ever die until they are the last one of their platoons." he recited, dodging another tree. _'What is it with Okaa-sama and those damn trees?'_

"Forth clause,"

The flash of blonde and green was back and she threw a punch. Naruto leaned back, bending at an unnatural angle before spinning and delivering a sturdy kick. His attack was blocked and a hand wrapped around his ankle. Sooner than he was prepared for, he found himself flying through the air. Curling into a ball, he spun as he plummeted back to the ground. Visible blue chakra coated the blonde's fist as she sent a powerful punch upward. Before it could make contact, Naruto released himself from his compacted state and delivered the same shattering axe kick she'd done not even a few minutes prior. The resulting shockwave was deafening, the crater formed by the strikes colliding becoming far larger than any that the woman created on her own.

"Only those medic ninja that have mastered the Strength of a Hundred Seal and the Ninja Art of Creation Rebirth are allowed to disregard the aforementioned laws." Naruto said as he landed in front of the blonde woman, his thumb pointing to the purple diamond seal on his forehead.

"I'm so proud of you, Sochi." Tsunade smiled, hugging him closely. "Now let get back and pack up. We're going back to Konoha."

Naruto scrunched his face up and made a sound of supreme disgust. "Why, Kaa-chan?"

"Because it's getting around the time for the Academy graduation, and I want you to get into the ranks of the Konoha Shinobi Force. I know that you want to be a Sannin, Sochi, and you are a prodigy indeed." Tsunade kissed the seal on his forehead, placating his eye rolling. "But even Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and myself started somewhere."

Naruto sighed and nodded, walking back towards town with his mother and older sister. Shizune ruffled Naruto's hair playfully, and turned to her master.

"Are you sure, Tsunade-sama?" she asked as Tonton squealed excitedly as Naruto pet her gently.

The elder blonde nodded, her thoughts returning to the promise she made to her sensei when she adopted Naruto all those years ago. Her precious Sochi.

* * *

The trio came up to the massive gates of Konohagakure. Naruto's mood was continually darkening the closer they came. No sooner did they walk into the gates, did the two chunin playing cards in front stand at attention, seemingly ready for anything, or at least that was the theory. But when they came face to face with two blondes with identical rhomboid markings. One with lovely eyes like melted chocolate, the other with whirlpools of deep azure. One with a green haori with the kanji for 'gamble' on the back, the other with a black haori with the kanji for 'five' on the back. One with impressively large breasts, the other with three whisker marks on either cheek. The other woman with the pair had dark hair and equally dark, and still gorgeous eyes. In her arms was a small pig with its own haori type of jacket with a pearl necklace.

"T-T-Tsunade-sama?" the two men stuttered out. "What a-are you doing back?"

Tsunade held Naruto close. "My son is here to take the graduation exam. Is sensei busy?"

They nodded and Kotetsu, a man with a cloth like bandage wrapped around the bridge of his nose escorted the group down the long street to the towards the Hokage's Mansion. Naruto, who had been in the village with his mother and sister countless times, already knew where he was going. The kind old man was Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage. He was an adoptive grandfather of sorts to the shorter blonde. The only part of the village that Naruto actually liked.

The meeting with the Sandaime was short and ended with the old man giving Naruto a scroll and word of hurry. Naruto hurried along the streets, ignoring the bows and looks of genuine curiosity. Either way, the blonde Senju heir was highly annoyed when he entered the Academy. Various shouts asking who he was, and why he was even in the Academy when a chunin named Iruka made himself known. Naruto gave him the scroll from the Sandaime and his eyes widened to near impossible levels.

"You're T-Tsunade-sama's son?" he managed to get out.

The younger blonde nodded nonchalantly. It was ridiculous how often he dealt with this reaction; the stuttering, the bug-eyes, the subsequent addressing going from just Naruto to 'Senju-sama'. It got old when he was five.

"Yes," he sighed, finally giving a verbal answer. "Just Naruto is fine."

Naruto proceeded to take his seat, completely bored with the fact that he had to do this. 'The things I do for love,' he thought miserably. The test in and of itself was insulting, for lack of a better term. Naruto knew he wasn't being fair; not everyone was the son of a Sannin, least of all the best medic-nin in the world. Being trained extensively by his Sannin mother and jonin level sister, while troublesome at times, had its merits. The written test, which dealt in theory was a breeze. The shurikenjutsu test was easy; though again, he and his sister preferred poisonous senbon to actual kunai and shuriken. That alone required more concentration and dexterity.

The taijutsu portion was fun, at the very least. He was paired with the assistant teacher, a man named Mizuki, that was continually glaring at him. Needless to say, the man was put in his place. Finally, they made it to the last portion of the test, which focused on ninjutsu. The students were required to perform the Substitution, Transformation, and Clone technique. Naruto substituted Iruka, then transformed into a perfect copy of Orochimaru. By the look on the chunin's face, Naruto would swear that the man was going to have a heart attack. After he returned to his original visage, he conjured five Shadow Clones. Iruka was truly impressed. The blonde was a prodigy in the making. He was given a forehead protector. He decided to give it to his mother; he had no intention of wearing it.

Oddly enough, he felt three sets of eyes on him throughout the entirety of the graduation exam. When he looked, he noticed a girl with pink hair and dazzling green eyes, a girl with pale blonde hair, and boy with the Uchiha crest on the back of his shirt.

* * *

Ino Yamanaka, heiress to the Yamanaka clan, was a connoisseur of the beautiful. As an aspiring botanist and self proclaimed 'most beautiful kunoichi' in her generation, it was a given that Ino would be attracted to the visible beauty in all things. In fact, her former best friend, Sakura Haruno, had odd pink hair and dazzling emerald eyes that initially drew the blonde to protect her when other bullied her for the size of her forehead. It was only afterwards that Ino found her beautiful on the inside.

It was this draw to the beautiful that led her to the last of the Uchiha, a brooding boy in their year. His cold nature and strong, silent personality were utterly sexy in the eyes of the young Yamanaka. Add his looks and the fact that he was the best rookie from their year.

So when the door to the classroom opened on examination day to admit a boy with the blondest hair Ino had ever seen and eyes bluer than any sapphire, she initially thought her heart was going to stop. He was slightly taller than Sasuke, and from the mesh shirt he wore, they could all tell that he was well muscled, though not overly so. Each cheek held three markings that looked oddly like whiskers. Like his pants, the haori he wore was a deep black with the kanji for 'Five' on the back in crimson. On his forehead was a strange purple diamond-like marking. Was his his clan crest? All clans had their crest emblazoned on their clothing; like the Nara and the Uchiha. Some clans, however, had physical markings as their crests; such as the red fangs on the cheeks of the Inuzuka, or the spirals on the cheeks of the Akimichi. What clan did he come from? It was at that moment that Ino decided that Sakura could have the Uchiha, for she had her eyes set on something much greater.

"You're T-Tsunade-sama's son." Iruka stuttered.

The boy looked as though he were bored and ready to do something else. "Just Naruto is fine."

Ino couldn't stop staring. Even as he took his seat behind Kiba, even as she was taking her test. The boy, Naruto sneered at the sheet of paper as he filled it out and in minutes, he finished. He walked up to the front at the same time as Shikamaru and they handed in their test papers. When Naruto settled back into his seat, he pulled out a reference book on human anatomy and began reading.

During the shurikenjutsu portion of the test, he broke his kunai and split his shuriken as they landed one on top of the other. It was impressive, to say the least. Like Sasuke, he got a perfect score. The taijutsu portion was rather interesting. Naruto was put up against Mizuki-sensei, and she knew that this would be a one sided fight. Much to the surprise of everyone, it was, though not in Mizuki-sensei's favor.

Naruto made the chunin look like a fool before delivering a vicious kick to the man's leg. He knelt before Naruto as the blonde held his hand up. What shocked Ino and quite frankly had everyone else shocked was what came next. Naruto flicked Mizuki-sensei's forehead. The white haired man was set crashing through several trees before heavily splintering another and slumping against the trunk. All jaws were dropped.

The ninjutsu portion was in motion and Ino found herself anxious to find the blonde and introduce herself. Naruto was sitting at the desk he claimed with papers strewn over the top. He was going over something and that held Ino's curiosity. Bracing herself, she walked over.

"Hi," she smiled. "I'm Ino."

Naruto looked up and gave a warm smile. "Nice to meet you, Ino-san."

"Just Ino is fine." she sat beside him. "What are you reading?"

"Notes I've taken on various poisons. Some I've created, some I made an antidote for, and some that I just find interesting."

"You deal with poisons?" her parents owned Yamanaka's Flowers, and while it was a flower shop, shinobi also came in to get various poisons. Perhaps Ino should ask her mother about it when she went later.

He nodded. "Yeah, Kaa-chan says I have a gift when it comes to poison. I wouldn't go that far. It just interests me. A lot."

"Senju, Naruto." Iruka called. In a small plume of white smoke, the papers were gone.

Without another word, Naruto rose and followed Iruka to different classroom. Ino's mind was reeling. He had a lot of papers, all with some kind of diagram or other drawing. He writes a lot.

"Careful, Ino-pig." came the warning voice of Sakura. "Get too friendly with the new kid and I'll steal Sasuke-kun from under your nose."

Ino merely shrugged. "Hey, if I can get close to him, maybe he'll teach me some cool jutsu or how to heal."

The pinkette scoffed. "He's not as cool as Sasuke-kun."

_'Somehow I doubt that,'_ Ino thought, then said with a shrug. "Well, has Sasuke actually ever spoken to you?"

"No," Sakura's shoulders slumped, but she stood up straight with her eyes blazing with determination. "But that won't stop me. One of these days, Sasuke-kun will acknowledge me!"

Ino sweatdropped. _'Again, I seriously doubt it.'_

Naruto returned after little bit with his forehead protector in his hand. Reclaiming his original seat to the right of Ino, before he unsealed his notes once more and began pouring over an incomplete neurotoxin recipe. Iruka returned after a few more moments and congratulated the students who passed, telling them to return tomorrow for team placement. Naruto packed up, sealing his notes once again before leaving the school. With a yawn, he made his way through the streets of Konoha before he felt a hand on his shoulder. Had he not been in the village, he might've seriously injured whoever did it.

When he turned, he was face to face with Ino. Her pale blue eyes were attractive. Unfortunately for her, Naruto didn't really have a thing for blondes. He wouldn't mind dating one, it just wasn't his particular go to. 'I'm blonde enough for three people,' he remembered telling his sister before the decision to return permanently to Konohagakure was made.

"Hey, Ino. What's up?" he asked, still walking.

She easily fell into stride beside him. "Not much, really. I was going to go to my parent's flower shop. Do you want to come? We have poisons."

Naruto's ears perked up at that magical phrase. There were few ways to get the son of Tsunade of the Sannin to do something, especially since he inherited his mother's legendary stubbornness. One was the promise of reference materials. Another was something dealing with poisons. Another was the odd mixture of ramen and dango, with a side of sake that he could give to his mother.

"You know poisons too?" he asked excitedly, his eyes dancing.

Ino giggled, but shook her head. "No. Um, I was actually hoping you could teach me."

Naruto's smile faltered ever so slightly, but it got brighter at the prospect of teaching someone the beauty of poison. He was a strange one, the Senju heir.

"I was actually going to the hospital." Naruto turned his gaze forward. "Knowing my mom the way that I do, she's most likely already set up her office. I'm pretty sure Jiji made her the head of the hospital."

"Can I meet your mom?"

Naruto looked at the girl weirdly. Didn't she just say that she was going to go to her parent's store? He shrugged; his mother was a big deal after all. Ino suddenly felt uncomfortably warm. Before she knew what was happening, she was scooped up by Naruto and the two took to the rooftops of Konoha. Steam was literally rising thickly off of Naruto's skin, he was so hot. Ino never felt the shock of a step being taken. Were his feet even touching the rooftops?

In a matter of minutes, the duo landed in front of the hospital, startling a few citizens as they walked past the steaming boy and wind strewn girl. Ino took a moment to fix her hair and make sure that she was presentable.

"Is it true?" a voice called from behind him.

Naruto turned around as the stream became lighter and lighter. A girl with her hair done in two buns with rather lovely brown eyes was ogling him. Naruto was suddenly uncomfortable; why was this girl violating him with her eyes.

"Are you Tsunade-sama's son?" she asked.

"How'd you figure that out?" he asked tiredly.

"Well the greatest medic-nin would most likely be found in a hospital right?" the girl asked, and much to Ino's irritation, Naruto chuckled. "So then her child would only naturally be drawn to hospitals too, right? It would only make sense."

Naruto sighed after he finished chuckling; far too much was happening, far too fast for his liking. He nodded at the weird girls infallible logic. He was often drawn to hospitals wherever they went. He took pride in his ability to heal and loved to do so. He felt even closer to his mother and sister every time he healed someone or performed a surgery.

"D-Do you think I can meet her?" she asked. "She's my hero!"

_'Mine too,'_ Naruto thought as he resisted the urge to roll his eyes. _'Is this the damn Village Hidden in the Fangirls or the Leaves? I can't tell.'_

To be fair to the odd brown eyed girl, she held the air of a serious kunoichi. It was different than the blonde girl or the pink haired girl from the academy, but still familiar because of his family. Something hit Naruto. She never answered how in the hell she knew who he was. Whatever.

"Sure, I guess."

Tsunade was worried. Not that she felt like anything bad was going to happen, but instead her mind stayed with her Naru-chan. He held a deep seated resentment for their home village and it wasn't a secret why. This was the village that sent her lover and little brother to their deaths. This village was the reason she developed hemophobia, a fear that'd become so extreme and crippling to the world class medic that Shizune was forced to heal the more bloody wounds that Naruto received from training. The reason she became a wanderer. So it wasn't any kind of surprise that he held a resentment towards their home village.

His dream was to become a Sannin. To become a world class medic just like her, but she had her start here. Her home. His home. Tsunade sighed as she contemplated the sake in her bottom right desk drawer. She'd sent Shizune out to get some documents from the head nurse, but her mind wandered even still. A knock sounded on her door.

"Come in,"

"Okaa-sama," can the voice she loved the most. "I'm back."

She stood and grabbed the boy in her arms, smothering him in her bust. "How did it go, Sochi?"

When she finally released him and he drank in sweet oxygen, he smiled and handed her his Leaf headband. "I passed. It was too easy. Here, you can keep this. I'm not wearing it."

She gave him a chiding stare and took the forehead protector before she turned her gaze to the two girls staring at her as though she were some mythical hero. The blonde of the two eyed her Strength of a Hundred Seal then eyed Naruto's. Her eyes kept moving back and forth between the two seals. Tsunade was quickly becoming irritated.

"Sochi, who are they?"

Naruto held his hand towards Ino and Tenten in turn. "This is Ino and I met her at the academy. This is, um, Panda-chan and I met her while I was trying to come in and find you."

The girl he so affectionately referred to as 'Panda-chan' leveled a ball-shriveling glare at Naruto. He, having dealt with Tsunade herself, was unfazed and looked to her as though she were missing a few screws. "My name is not Panda-chan."

"Well before you started babbling about meeting my Kaa-chan, you never gave your name." he deadpanned.

Her glare weakened as a blush of embarrassment colored her cheeks. "Oh, uh, sorry. My name is Tenten."

Naruto stopped listening and looked around his mother's new office. Soon he sat on the floor and unsealed his notes again and took up a pen with a contemplative look while the three kunoichi spoke. He briefly wondered who was going to be on his team. The one named Shino looked cool and intelligent. The girl named Hinata, who kept eyeing him with faint blush, would also be an ideal teammate, he supposed.


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto sat on a wooden post found on his team's training ground. Originally, he was reading his copy of _Advanced Book of Poisons, volume 2_, but memories of the day prior was currently interrupting his focus.

* * *

Having been placed under a jonin named Kakashi Hatake with Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno as his teammates, he didn't know what to expect at first. For starters, his sensei was two and a half hours late. The Senju heir didn't care; it was more time to work on his poisons. Giving his incomplete neurotoxin formula a break, he opted for revising a powdered formula designed to inflict temporary blindness.

Hobby aside, he found that his teammates were rather lackluster. Having traveled a great distance in his young life and performed in a multitude of hospitals and clinics, he came across hundreds of thousands of different personalities. From cold and aloof to energetic and passionate. From tsundere to kuudere, and even the occasional yandere. Thankfully, he escaped from the few that he met.

So for him to have teammates with such...interesting personalities was kind of dull. Sasuke Uchiha was a brooding boy, most likely due to some kind of mental trauma in his early years, if Naruto had to hazard a guess. He was cold, and excelled at nearly anything he decided to put his time and effort into. It was his arrogance, however, that prevented him from truly shining. Whether due to him being the last of such a prestigious clan or due to the fact that he had such a legendary kekkei genkai, Naruto didn't know. From what he'd read, the Uchiha were a proud clan with an extremely powerful kekkei genkai in the form of a dojutsu. It was due to that little fact that Naruto started a little side project. Either way, the boy looked down his peers - believing himself peerless in all things.

Sakura Haruno was the complete opposite in a multitude of regards. Rather than having a superiority complex, she had a powerful inferiority complex. It'd come, he learned, from the fact that she was insecure about her forehead as well as the fact that she came from a civilian family. Though oddly enough, Mebuki Haruno was a kunoichi at one point in time before settling down with Sakura's father. Regardless, the girl was best friends with Ino -according to the other blonde- and they had a falling out over Sasuke. The pinkette hung on the Uchiha's every word. It was like watching a devout follower listening to their living god. At times it was interesting. At times, he really wanted to render her unconscious. Sakura had also taken to insulting Naruto at every convenience, claiming that he'll never be as whatever as Sasuke. The aforementioned Uchiha would merely scoff at every form of stimuli the girl would give him. It was obvious her obsessive devotion was going to lead her to a lot of heartbreak and self destruction.

In reality, Ino was the same way. During the few conversations he had with the Yamanaka heiress, she would often muse aloud about how much Naruto reminded her of a much nicer Sasuke. That, in and of itself, was an insult. As such, Naruto distanced himself from the blonde and pinkette every chance he got. It was going to get far more difficult from here, as he was the Haruno's teammate, and Ino seemed to always be waiting for him in different locations around the village. Naruto swore that if he heard anything else with Sasuke's name in it, where the arrogant prick wasn't directly involved, he was going to lose it.

During his revisions to his powered toxin, Sasuke stared out of the window, seemingly deep in thought about whatever it was he thought about. Sakura was in between violating Sasuke with her eyes, giving Naruto odd looks, and complaining about the tardiness of their jonin. It was obvious that the wait was wearing on Sasuke's patience as well. Soon his attention turned to Naruto, who was flipping through the pages of his purple book while scribbling notes on a blank scroll. Something about the blonde irritated him, but he didn't know what.

Was it the way he blatantly ignored the two of them? Was it the way that he didn't bother making conversation; not that Sasuke would give an answer anyway. Or was it the fact that he had absolutely no issue staying in the damned classroom doing whatever the hell he was doing, while he and Sakura were squirming in their seats with impatience?

Sasuke sighed, venting his irritation. Sakura was pacing in an effort to alleviate the building energy that she felt. Naruto, of course, didn't notice.

When the jonin finally showed up, he said what was essentially 'I hate you, come to the roof.' The Senju, Uchiha, and Haruno made their way to the roof and sat in front of their instructor. They were going to introduce themselves, Kakashi announced, by sharing details about themselves. Their name, likes, dislikes and dreams.

At the behest of Sakura, Kakashi went first. At the end of it, they knew precious little about their sensei except his name; something they already knew thanks to Iruka's team placement which took place a full three hours earlier at that point. The three genin sweatdropped before it was Sakura's turn. Just like their sensei, all that was known about the pinkette was her name. Throughout the whole of introduction, particularly the bits about her likes and dreams, she continually looked at Sasuke as she hugged herself, squirmed and giggled. It was quite obvious what she liked and what her dream was. Naruto rolled his eyes and looked to the clouds.

Sasuke was next, and his held the most merit as one that Naruto could actually get behind. At least, for his dream.

"_My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I have very little things that I like, while my dislikes are many. I do not have a dream, no, for I shall turn it into a reality. My ambition is to kill a certain man and restore the honor of my clan."_

Naruto figured that if he and the ravenette bastard ever became friends, he wouldn't mind helping out. Of course, the lad would have to go through some major breakthroughs in terms of personality. As it currently stood, Naruto couldn't really stand being anywhere near his teammates.

"_How about you, blondie?"_

"_My name is Naruto Senju. I like poisons, venoms, and toxins. I also like to discreetly poison people that call me blondie. I dislike people who think they're Kami's gift to the world and not being able to heal the wounded. My dream is to become the next Sannin."_

Sasuke snorted. "_You do know that the term 'Sannin' means three ninja, right idiot? And since there's already Sannin in the world, you can't be one."_

"_Besides, if there were a way to become Sannin, Sasuke-kun would probably become one quicker than you."_ Sakura sneered condescendingly.

"_Now, now."_ Kakashi chided, "_Naruto, are you are that the term Sannin is merely a title? An honorific, if you will. Are you sure you don't mean Sennin?"_

It was at that moment that Naruto decided to definitively poison all three of them. "_Yes, I am well aware of the fact that it is merely a title, an honorific. Yes, I will become a Sage on my journey to become a Sannin. No, I am not confused. Hanzo the Salamander named my mother and her teammates the Sannin, three legendary ninja, each master in their own given fields. Jiraiya in Fuinjutsu. Orochimaru Ninjutsu. My Kaa-chan in Medical Ninjutsu. As much as it pains me, Kaa-chan is not immortal. Neither is Jiraiya or Orochimaru. When they finally depart from this world, I wish to be the one to keep the title alive. I will be the next Sannin, as in the Next Generation Sannin."_

Kakashi's visible eye widened, before he nodded sagely. He understood what the boy meant completely. It was an odd dream, though it couldn't possibly be any weirder than dreaming about becoming a Hokage. They were shinobi; their entire world was weird, in a manner of speaking. Kakashi also made a note to not call Naruto 'blondie' in the near to distant future. After telling them to meet him on Training Ground Seven for a test, which Sakura emphatically reminded him that they were already tested, he explained that the test was to make sure they were truly worthy of being genin and left.

* * *

Naruto sighed. He loathed when people told him that his dream didn't make any sense, that it wasn't attainable due to the term 'Sannin' meaning 'Three Ninja'. Naruto was not an idiot. He could be a bit of an airhead at times, but never an idiot. Of course, he didn't care what others thought of his dream, as many seem to forget that the Sannin are regarded as legends, therefore making it a goal-worthy title. He heaved another sigh when he felt two chakra signatures moving towards him. Taking a stick of dango out of the container he brought from him, he began to munch on the snack as he returned his attention to his book.

"Kakashi-sensei instructed us not to eat breakfast, Naruto." Sakura scolded once she was close enough to the blonde.

Naruto looked into the depths of her eyes only to look back at his book. The sound of rumbling stomachs blocked out the sound of his page turning. The agitation in the air was palpable, though none of it was aimed at him directly. There was a poof, and when pinkette and Uchiha turned, they had to react quickly to catch neatly wrapped sandwiches. Naruto closed his book as he finished his dango and put it away, deciding that it would be a lost cause to continue reading.

"Eat," he commanded gently. "You will need your strength for whatever it is we're about to do."

Sasuke sneered. "Don't think that you can tell me what to do, loser."

Naruto made a half ram seal and the sandwich in the other boy's hand vanished. "Suit yourself then."

Sakura was conflicted, though only partially. Sasuke's food was rather hastily taken away from him for his comment, leaving him to glare at the uncaring blonde. She was hungry, and while she wanted to follow in Sasuke's every footstep, she knew the blonde had a point. Walking up to her crush, she gifted him with half of her sandwich. He looked at her and after making a sound of irritation, he mumbled his thanks as he accepted her gift. A little bit of something was better than none.

Contrary to popular belief, Kakashi Hatake was never late. Having been an Anbu for as long as he could remember, the white haired man often arrived early to wherever he needed to be. The key term being needed. According to the Sandaime, he needed to mold and instruct his genin squad, and as such, he would never be late when it came to the three kids.

Kakashi watched them rather intently, taking note of their interactions with each other. The son of the Senju acted with an indifference that the jonin found familiar. He acted the same way when he was his part of his own genin squad under the Yondaime before his time as the Hokage. The last of the Uchiha -at least of those still loyal to Konoha- had a certain air about him, one that screamed that he was better than those he was surrounded by. It didn't help that those surrounding him were usually the biggest ass-kissers that Kakashi had ever seen in his years. Sakura only cared about what Sasuke did and thought, and as such her devout obsession with the boy would undoubtedly drive a wedge between the teammates.

Funnily enough, Kakashi saw Naruto interact with people in Konoha Hospital, along with Tenten and Ino. He had a kindness that was undeniable, coupled with a personality that was capable of being the glue to hold together any sort of straining relationship. So why did he act to uncaring towards the two people that he would be teammates with until one or all of them die? It was common knowledge that once a genin was assigned to a team, that team was permanent. That wasn't to say that one member couldn't take a mission with another team altogether, because that was rather common, but Team Seven would forever be Team Seven.

Deciding to observe his charges for another two hours, he sighed and decided to get this shit-show-in-waiting rolling. From his continued observations, it seemed like a two against one, so it was at that moment that Kakashi decided to drill teamwork into them. And he had just the thing for that.

"You're late!" Sakura jabbed a finger in her sensei's direction, clearly irritated.

Kakashi offered an eye smile. "Sorry about that. You see, I ran into a black cat, so in order to avoid any bad luck, I had to take the long way."

Of course that was complete and utter bullshit, and his genin knew that. Only Naruto entertained his shenanigans with an understanding nod, though his eyes were calling his bluff. He chuckled.

"Well it's time to start your test." the jonin brought out two small bells. "You have until noon to retrieve these bells from me using any means necessary."

"But sensei, there are only two bells." Sakura noted.

He nodded. "That's because only two of you shall pass. The one that fails will be sent back to the Academy."

As he said that, two pairs of eyes shifted to Naruto. Kakashi sweatdropped; they were already singling him out as the one who was going to fail. Oh yeah, he most certainly needed to beat teamwork into them.

"Now come at me with the intent to kill, or you will fail." said Kakashi in a grim tone. "Begin."

The three genin vanished. Sakura decided to make a couple of booby traps. Snickering to herself, she set about her foolproof plan with wire strings, kunai, three shuriken, and four explosive tags. All she needed was someone to lead Kakashi into her trap and those bells would be as good as hers. Of course, she'd gift the other one to Sasuke. He deserved it, after all.

Sasuke was hidden amongst the trees armed with a kunai in either hand, held in a reverse grip. He watched a seemingly unaware Kakashi meander into the forest in which the three of them were hidden. When the time was right, he would spring his trap and claim those bells for himself.

Naruto rose from his hiding spot in the foliage that littered the ground. His stealth was nearly unrivalled, but there was no point in needlessly flaunting. It was obvious that Kakashi wasn't a pushover. He watched Sakura set up her traps in order to kite and finally bind their sensei, while Sasuke was rather well hidden, ready to attack the jonin solo. Brave, but foolish. Well, it wasn't like he had anything better to do. Might as well play the fool.

The charging Senju heir eyed his teammates, and grinned at their faces; one incredulous, one expecting. Kakashi reached into his pouch and retrieved a book.

"Time for your first lesson." he said. "Taijutsu."

He threw a vicious kick at the boy, only for him to explode into white smoke. Four more copies of the blonde erupted from the surrounding foliage, each rushing him with a different taijutsu form than the others. It didn't matter. Kakashi dispatched them all with one well placed shot, but the numbers were getting ridiculous. From one to four, from four to eight, from eight to twenty, then back to one. His pattern held no consistency, as even the numbers of the clones changed. From one to twenty, from twenty to eight, from eight to ten. It made no sense. Still, it wasn't like they were posing much of a challenge.

_"Heavenly Kick of Pain."_

There was a tingle of warning on the back of Kakashi's neck. He looked up and made a wild dive to the left as the original Naruto loosed a wicked axe-kick where his sensei once stood. The ground immediately cratered, shards of earth rising and altering the terrain. Kakashi's eye widened, though he really shouldn't be surprised. He heard about how he beat Mizuki with two moves. He'd even heard stories about Tsunade's monstrous strength. That didn't mean he was expecting it, however.

Naruto instantly went one the attack, attacking in a vicious yet deliberate manner. Kakashi dodged each attack easily and managed to retaliate at seemingly perfect moments. Once again, he was surprised to see Naruto blocking his attacks when they were so close to striking him. The fight pushed Kakashi back against a tree.

"Shannaro!"

There were several explosions that Kakashi dodged just in time, only to see kunai and shuriken fly at him. He ducked and the weapons embedded themselves in the tree he stood in front of. Naruto appeared in front of him again, but there was a glint of light. Kakashi substituted with one of the rocks that Naruto created from his attack. The aforementioned blonde was suddenly trapped, tied up to the rock by wire strings.

Sakura came from the tree she was hiding in to examine her handywork. Her jaw fell open when she noticed it was Naruto that was snared instead of Kakashi.

"Damn it, Naruto!"

The boy glared at her before vanishing in smoke. A sudden shadow overtook Sakura as she turned to find her sensei staring into the depths of her eyes.

"Second lesson: Genjutsu."

Suddenly, everyone was gone. She was afraid, watching carefully as leaves spiralled around her. Before she knew what was going on she heard a weak, raspy voice. It was familiar as it called out to her.

"S-Sakura," she turned to find Sasuke, crawling towards her. He was bloody, beaten, and had dozens of senbon embedded within his body.

She screamed, unable to comprehend what her brain was showing her, before she succumbed to the cold grasp of unconsciousness.

Kakashi watched his female student dropped. He was only to sigh as a blur of blue flew at him. Sasuke was attacking with a ferocity that was associated with the Inuzuka clan. Still, using his clan Taijutsu, he was able to get Kakashi to move the way he wanted, resulting in a clean kick sent the man back by a few feet. Sasuke glared at him, pissed that the jonin was still on his feet.

"Lesson three: Ninjutsu." he flew through hand seals before he held his hand up in front of his mouth. _"Fire Release: Fireball Jutsu."_

Sasuke flew through his own hand seals. _"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu."_

The flames clashed and pushed against each other for dominance. No one noticed Naruto claim Sakura and set her away from the colliding fire techniques. No one else noticed when Kakashi went underground via his _Earth Release: Hiding like a Mole Technique._ The flames died down with Sasuke's being the victor. Most of the surrounding greenery was set ablaze and Sasuke was left panting in his spot. He gave a grin before he felt something grab him by the ankles.

"What the hell?" he looked down to see two gloved hands.

_"Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique"_

The next movements were a blur to the Uchiha heir as he suddenly found himself buried to the neck in the ground, while Kakashi stood over him with a kind eye smile. There was a flash of yellow and white behind their sensei, but nothing came from it. Sasuke wondered if he was hallucinating, but focused his energy on getting out of his current predicament.

Kakashi looked at his handy work; a bound blonde, a trapped brunette, and a stirring pinkette.

_"Boil Release: Unrivalled Strength."_

A punch that appeared seemingly out of thin air lodged itself in Kakashi's midsection and sent him flying. Sasuke looked up, suddenly uncomfortably hot. Naruto looked down at him, his skin steaming as he punched the ground. His unnatural strength coupled with a delicately controlled burst of chakra loosened the ground enough for Sasuke to escape.

"How the hell did you do that?"

Naruto looked to him and looked back at his coughing sensei. "Don't worry about that. Get Sakura."

Having said his piece, he rushed off towards Kakashi as the man stood and delivered an elegant spin kick. Naruto decided to take a dive, allowing the kick to send him flying; his objective was complete. The timer Kakashi set rang angrily as all movement came to a stop. Sakura and Sasuke were standing next to a downed Naruto.

"Time's up," Kakashi said, but before he could continue, Naruto held up two small bells as he stood.

The other two genin gaped, while the jonin eyed the boy curiously. How did he manage to do that? "Hm. Good job, Naruto. Now, who gets the bells?"

Naruto looked to his two teammates. Both looked relatively worried; should he decide to be selfish either one could and would be sent back to the Academy. Surprise slapped them both as they each received a bell, leaving Naruto with none. They stared at him, wondering why he would do such a thing.

"I honestly don't care about being sent back." Naruto said. "The dreams they have require them to be here...kind of. I was only doing this to make my mom happy."

Kakashi looked at the boy as he turned and started to walk away, but the white haired jonin held him fast by the shoulder. "Congratulations. You all pass."

Three confused genin waited on him to elaborate, as none could seem to form a coherent question.

"In the ninja world, those who break the rules are scum." Kakashi explained sagely. "But those that abandon their comrades are worse than scum. Now, meet back here tomorrow morning at nine for our first mission."


	3. Chapter 3

"_Sochi-kun, what are you doing?" Tsunade asked as she looked down at her small blonde._

_Naruto carefully observed the tiny Katsuyu that he'd managed to summon. At roughly seven years old, he may have been the youngest person since the Warring States Period to actually succeed in performing the Ninja Art: Summoning Technique. Of course, since he wanted to emulate his mother in all things, he refused the toad summoning contract from Uncle Jiraiya whenever the old pervert came around. He'd even refused the snake summoning contract from Uncle Orochimaru; the last thing he'd ever offered the boy before he officially went rogue. _

_No. Naruto Senju would wait patiently for his beloved mother to offer him her own summoning contract. By that point, he'd already met Katsuyu many times and he liked her. She was cute for a slug, and damn adorable when she was in her miniscule state. When he turned seven, his patience was well rewarded as he was finally gifted with the slug summoning contract and the required hand seals to utilize the technique._

"_Asking Katsuyu-chan questions." he answered, smiling at her._

_Tsunade raised an amused brow at the rather affectionate honorific he gave to the great slug. "Katsuyu-chan?"_

_He nodded excitedly, gently scooping up the tiny white and blue slug before presenting her proudly to his mother. "I managed to get a tiny Katsuyu. Since she's tiny, she's Katsuyu-chan."_

_The older blonde snickered. "And is Katsuyu okay with that?"_

"_It's actually quite refreshing to have such a humbling honorific," the slug answered. "But I'm afraid I must be going, Naruto-kun."_

_And with that she poofed from existence. Still the smaller blonde beamed with pride, his smile contagious. Tsunade knelt and ruffled his hair before he tackled her into a hug. _

"_I love you, Kaa-chan."_

_No matter how many times the Sannin heard that, it made her tear up just like the first time. "I love you too, Naru-chan."_

_Shizune watched from a distance and smiled wistfully. Part of her wanted a child of her own, but she knew she wasn't yet old enough or strong enough for such a responsibility. So she settled for being 'Shizu-nee-chan', smiling as he master and mother figure hugged her little brother. A scream shocked the family into looking towards the village they were temporarily staying in. _

_Naruto, in a burst of speed, rushed past his sister with Tsunade hot on his trail. Shizune hurried after them, only to gasp as they came face to face with a group of twelve men, each armed with an axe or katana. In the middle of the circle was a small group of women, some only slightly older than Naruto, other as old as Shizune._

_The smaller blonde had vanished, though the atmosphere had gotten very hot. Both kunoichi knew what it meant; hell they were in the middle of a training session when the boy inadvertently activated a part of his kekkei genkai. The resulting trip to Konohagakure and conversation with Hiruzen about a kekkei genkai that caused steam to be emitted from the skin paired with extreme strength led to the memory of when they'd first taken him from the village. _

_The Yondaime sealed the Five Tailed Bijuu within the boy shortly after his birth; the creature known for giving it's known jinchuriki the Fire and Water Release affinities, thus resulting in the nature transformation kekkei genkai known as the Boil Release._

_So when Naruto used Tsunade's Heavenly Spear Kick on the largest of the bandits and kicked a literal hole into the man's chest, the elder blonde and her protege knew that they were going to have to up his training so that he wouldn't go around literally punching heads off, as he just demonstrated the ability to do so…_

_Damn it!_

"Everything okay, Tsunade-sama?" Shizune asked as she proceeded to take the sake from her master's grasp. She swore the woman had been about to pour a drink when she froze up.

The distant look in her deep brown eyes faded as she seemed to come back from wherever -or whenever- she just was. "Yeah. Just...nostalgia."

The dark haired woman looked at her master curiously as a sad and longing smile curving her lips. Tsunade looked to the woman she'd long since seen as a daughter.

"Naru-chan is growing up too fast." she whispered. "Remember when he was punching and kicking literal holes into those bandits?"

Shizune chuckled, remembering how pale she'd been at the time. "He broke down and cried for a while afterwards. Your strength mixed with the effects of his kekkei genkai is quite the scary thing."

"Now sensei sent my baby on a C-ranked mission. I know he's been in more dangerous scenarios, but at the very least one of us were there to make sure that everything didn't go to shit." the woman sighed. "I know it's just the mother in me talking, but I can't help but be worried. The only shinobi he's fought were us, and that was just sparring."

"Then that means that they need to be Jonin or Kage level at the very least to make him sweat, right?" Shizune placed a calming hand on her shoulder. "Besides, he's with his Jonin sensei and team."

"That's what I'm worried about."

* * *

"Eight points," the eerie whisper seemed to resonate throughout the entire mist filled area, threatening and promising a grisly death for all who dare continue this foolish quest. "Larynx. Spine. Lungs. Liver. Jugular. Subclavian Artery. Kidneys. Heart."

Sakura was panicking, albeit quietly. Sasuke was sweating. Naruto was unnerved, but tried his damnedest not to show it.

"Now," the gravelly whisper continued. "Which will be my kill point?"

Kakashi gathered his chakra and in a wicked burst, removed the mist from the surrounding area. Sasuke, panicking more so than even Sakura, though keeping it internal, began to reach for a kunai. He needed an escape and his own death would be the perfect escape. Unfortunately for him, Naruto chose that moment to grab his arm, though his own body was shaking.

"I won't heal a coward," the blonde snarled.

"Sasuke," Kakashi's voice cut through the tension and the venom in Naruto's voice. "Calm down. I will not let my comrades die. Trust me."

He looked over her shoulder and gave his patented eye smile, showing that he was calm and in control. Tazuna gasped.

"I wouldn't be so sure." Zabuza was crouched in between the genin and civilian, poised to attack.

Naruto reacted on pure instinct; weaving the tiger, horse, rabbit, rat, and dog hand seals. "Chakra Scalpel."

He spun on his heel and with his right hand, coated in visible chakra that looked more akin to the tip of a double edged sword, slashed Zabuza's throat. The man's head came off, but his body erupted into water, falling into a useless puddle at their feet.

"Impressive genin you have, Kakashi." Zabuza stood on the water's surface, a grin on his face. "It's been a while since anyone under the Jonin level has been able to defeat my water clones."

Kakashi lowered himself into a taijutsu stance, holding his kunai in a reverse grip. Naruto cursed mentally. Did he have anything that would be helpful? Perhaps his poison mist jutsu, but that would more than likely kill his sensei as he had yet to perfect his neurotoxin formula. Even the poisons he kept in bombs and sealing tags would affect his sensei and that was unacceptable to the Senju heir. Damn it all to Hell.

Still, from his perspective, Kakashi was keeping up with the Missing-Nin, each of them trading kill-blows with a macabre beauty. Zabuza left himself open as he went to swing his sword, and Kakashi pierced the man's heart. His sword fell from his grip and he grabbed onto Kakashi before bursting into water, more water from beneath the Jonin's feet gathering and trapping him in a sphere of water. Naruto, while worried about his sensei, decided to learn that technique as it was 'so damn cool'.

"Get Tazuna out of here!" Kakashi shouted.

Naruto's heart was pounding as he wracked his brain for a plan, Zabuza conjuring three more water clones. He began to panic, something he hadn't done since he was seven and was in the middle of an operation where his patient went into cardiac arrest. He try to get his sensei, he could try to run with his teammates, he could just leave…

Hell no, those last two weren't an option. Naruto Senju would never leave anyone under his care behind, nor did he give up.

"_Don't forget that you are not alone, Naruto-san."_ a gentle, feminine voice spoke rather soothingly from the back of his mind. "_My power is your power as you are my jinchuriki."_

That made Naruto stop and take a deep breath, before letting out a laugh. All sets of eyes went to him, laughing as though he went mad. He'd all but forgotten, and while they had yet to officially meet, he'd spoken to her numerous times before. Steam erupted in geysers from his body as he threw off his haori, thickening and becoming a fog that clung to the ground. His body gained the slightest glow and chakra once again covered his hands.

"_Boil Release: Unrivalled Strength."_ the steam continued, superheating the chilled air at an alarming rate. "_Chakra Scalpel."_

Pushing forward from his right foot, he launched himself at the three clones. Slash, slash, slash. Three heads that then turned to small puddles fell to the ground. In another burst of speed, he was in front of Zabuza, intent on relieving the man man of his right arm just as he had done to the Demon Brothers mere hours before. The Missing-Nin released the jutsu and dodged, his eyes wide at the blonde rushing him like a crazed demon.

Determined to not be pushed around by some blonde brat, Zabuza began to fight back, swinging his massive blade with seasoned ease. Naruto dodged easily, the speed granted to him by his kekkei genkai allowed him to move in for a counter attack and back off before he was cleaved in two. Zabuza swung his blade in a horizontal sweep. Naruto jumped over it and delivered a staggering kick that was blocked by the man's free hand. He twisted, cracking his jaw with a powerful uppercut that send the rogue sailing a few feet away.

"Are you okay, Kakashi-sensei?" he asked as the steam stopped erupting from his flesh.

The Jonin nodded. "You fought well, Naruto, but now it's time to-"

He didn't finish. The blonde was gone, Sakura standing in his place as the massive sword was shoved through his chest, bursting from his back in an explosion of blood.

* * *

Ino couldn't help but wonder where her fellow blonde was. Lately, he'd been avoiding her, so she never had the chance to ask him to teach her some new things; being a mind walker would only get her so far, especially at her current level. Not that Asuma-sensei wasn't a good teacher, he was great. But he focused more on their training as a group; as the new generation Ino-Shika-Cho combination, it was necessary for Choji, Shikamaru, and herself to be flawless. Truthfully, it got irritating at times.

Even still, aside from working on tree walking, D-ranked missions and combination attacks, it was boring and Ino didn't feel like she was making any progress. How was she supposed to get Sasuke-kun's attention if she wasn't stronger than that damned Forehead-girl? Perhaps she should go on a different diet? She looked out of the window of the flower shop to see Tsunade and Shizune. Shizune looked frazzled, while Tsunade laughed at her. Moving hurriedly from behind the counter, she shot out of the store in order to catch up to them.

"Tsunade-sama, Shizune-san."

The two women turned to see Ino, one of the girls that Naruto brought to the hospital their first day back in Konoha.

"Ino?" Tsunade made a habit of remembering the names of any female that stood too close to her Sochi, as it seemed to happen far more than she liked. "What's wrong?"

She shook her head. "Nothing's wrong. I was just wondering if either of you knew where Naruto was."

Tsunade narrowed her eyes dangerously at the girl. "Why?"

She began shaking under the intense scrutiny of the elder blonde. "I-I, uh, wanted to see if he wanted to train with me."

Shizune giggled, despite looking like something was feverishly working on her very last shred of patience. She knew how protective her master could get of Naruto when it came to girls his own age, among other things.

"He went out on a mission," Shizune informed the blue eyed girl, saving her from the intense and frankly frightening stare of the Senju matriarch. "He and his team left earlier today, don't worry though, he'll be back soon."

Tsunade looked to her apprentice incredulously. Like she was helping this young girl garner her son's attention, which wasn't the case, of course. The rational part of her brain told her that she was being irrational, as per usual when it came to her son. That rational part however, would soon be drowned out by some delicious dango and sake. A sudden wave of nausea hit Tsunade and she stumbled before regaining her footing. Both Ino and Shizune stared at her curiously.

Something was wrong.

* * *

Naruto coughed, globs of blood shot from his mouth to the ground. Zabuza felt his eyes widen. Sasuke was on the floor, as was Tazuna, both staring at the pierced blonde before them. Kakashi felt his blonde run cold, and Sakura felt tears running down her face. That was supposed to be her.

"Why?" she whispered, her voice suddenly hoarse.

"T-Third Clause," the blonde choked out to no one in particular, as he delivered a punch that split the blade embedded in his chest in two. "No medic-nin shall ever die until they are the last of their platoon."

Crimson and blue chakra swirled mightily around the blonde as he removed the portion of the sword from his chest and threw it to the ground. The diamond seal on his forehead glowed strangely before it faded, leaving black markings of his face.

"_Ninja Art: Creation Rebirth._" he grabbed Zabuza by the throat and slammed him to the ground before them. His haired shadowed his eyes as he picked the Missing-Nin up and slammed him again, before throwing him in a crumpled heap at Kakashi's feet.

Slowly and shakily, the man stood, much to Sakura's panic. In a yellow flash, the taller of the Jonin was sent flying. He crashed into a tree just as two senbon pierced his neck. A shinobi wearing the mask of a Kirigakure Hunter-Nin came and picked up the stilled body of Zabuza before they wordlessly vanished.

"What the hell," was all Sasuke could manage as the blonde started to fall.

Kakashi appeared crouched in front of him, allowing the Senju heir to fall onto his back. "Tazuna, which way is it to your house?"


	4. Chapter 4

Ino was, for lack of a better term, confused. Her thoughts from the day prior as well as her words to Sakura on graduation day were both playing repeatedly at the forefront of her mind. Her words and thought pattern were conflicting.

_"Hey, if I can get close to him, maybe he'll teach me some cool jutsu or how to heal."_

That simple phrase, as harmless as it may sound to the untrained or male ear, was basically handing Sasuke-kun over to her former friend and rival with her blessings. It was as though she were saying, '_Sasuke is all yours, Naruto-kun is far more interesting and worthy of my pursuit.'_

"Wait, Naruto-kun?" she mused aloud.

She'd only just met the guy. Wasn't it far too early to start applying affectionate honorifics to his name? Okay, technically she'd known him for about a month and day, and they often hung out together after running into each other. Okay that wasn't true; she waited for him at strategic locations around the village for a chance to try and work that good old Yamanaka charm on him.

'_Oh Kami, I'm becoming Forehead.' _Ino thought, slumping at the thought.

But then at the same time, just yesterday, she wondered if her training with Naruto would garner the attention of the Uchiha. Her thought pattern was counterproductive: get the attention of the Senju heir and make him like you, or use the training he'll agree to in order to win the affection of the Uchiha heir. Gah! Everything was so confusing.

One thing did stand out to her though. When he carried her bridal style to the hospital, Ino found herself unconsciously snuggling closer. Even blushing profusely at the feel of those iron-like muscles. Not that she'd ever admit it, of course. With a sigh and a look at the time, Ino rose out of her bed and prepared to meet with her team, as they had another training exercise.

* * *

When Naruto opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was that he was no longer where he was supposed to be. He was supposed to be in the Land of Waves. Instead, he stood in a clearing of sorts, in what seemed to be a forest if the thickening trees surrounding the area was any indication. All of a sudden he sneezed. His first thought was to wonder who was talking about him. His second, however, was to ponder about the warm and very soothing chakra that was currently surrounding him.

Fog clung to the grass beneath his feet, the dew on the blades reflecting the majesty of the ethereal light of the waxing crescent moon above. It was beautiful; too much so. Turning around once more, he found himself face to face with a massive creature that held the air of familiarity. It had the body of a gargantuan white horse, but the head of a dolphin, four horns adorning its crown. A weird amalgamation of creatures, to be sure, but with five tails that waved serenely in the air, each tipped tan just like the hooves.

"Ko-chan?"

The creature gestured in a manner similar to a smile, which was certainly off putting to Naruto. With a nod, she proceeded to lay down before him. He was looking at the Gobi. Easily the most majestic out of her siblings, Kokuō seemed to be the living embodiment of serenity. But the smile soon disappeared and was replaced with a look that struck terror into the heart of the young Senju. A feat that wasn't necessarily easy by any means; but there was something about the otherworldly fury on the face of his Bijuu that he found nightmarish.

"Hello, Naruto-kun." her tone was polite, almost as ethereal as the moonlight bathing them, but still retaining an upset firmness. "While I am glad to officially meet you, I'm afraid I'll have to ask you not to do that again."

"Do what?" he asked densely, before his memories returned with a vengeance.

Fighting Zabuza toe-to-toe, saving Kakashi-sensei, performing the Substitution jutsu on Sakura so that he would get impaled by the Missing-Nin's sword instead of her. Using the _Forbidden Ninja Art of Creation Rebirth_ and promptly beating the shit out of Zabuza as the stab wound closed. The senbon that pierced a pressure point on his neck as the Kiri Hunter-Nin took him away. If he wasn't mistaken that was a specified pressure point that put one into an induced coma. Even he didn't like to mess with that particular point.

Looking around at his surroundings again, Naruto came to the conclusion that he wasn't dead. No doubt the Pure World looked different than this, as he wasn't particularly one to just arbitrarily stare at the moon. Working under moonlight, however, was one of the best feelings in the… oh holy shit.

"You aren't dead, Naruto-kun." Kokuō explained. "Rather, we are within you."

If his research on jinchūriki was any good, then that would mean they were within his mind. An odd thought, given that once sealed into a human, the Bijuu and their jinchūriki become connected at the spiritual level. Even if he were to undo the seal used, which was child's play thanks to the perverted Toad Sage, he and Kokuō would remain inseparable. He would be able to draw on her chakra and she would still 'die' if and when he did.

"Well that's good news at least." he nodded sagely. "Means I can work on healing the citizens of the Wave when I wake up and then work on analysing that poison I liberated from the Demon Brothers."

"Are you crazy?" the Bijuu paused and eyed her twin soul. "Look who I'm talking to. Of course you are."

"The hell is that supposed to mean?"

Kokuō looked to the blonde incredulously. "You jumped in front of a massive sword to save someone when you could've undoubtedly just pushed her out of the way. You aren't some clanless nobody, and without a doubt people would've been devastated if you died."

"But I didn't die." Naruto shot back.

In reality, it was virtually impossible for Naruto to die in combat due to the two Forbidden Medical Ninjutsu passed down to him from his mother. T_he Forbidden Ninja Art of Creation Rebirth_ is a jutsu that released insane amounts of chakra from the Strength of a Hundred seal on the user's forehead in order to heal virtually an internal and external wounds. It's because of this release of chakra that the body's cell division is stimulated to the extreme. Unfortunately, it didn't heal damaged cells. Rather, it created new cells at such a rate that it didn't matter, thus resulting in the instantaneous healing. The only drawback is that the user's lifespan is shortened every time they use the technique.

On the other hand, the Ninja Art Creation Rebirth - Strength of a Hundred is a forbidden technique that healed instantly via accelerated cellular division, granted the user still has chakra left to use. Destroyed organs could even be repaired before one's very eyes. Theoretically, the user could be bisected and as long as they were still breathing, they could reattach the halves of their body. The healing power can also be passed onto another through direct physical contact. So long as the jutsu is active, the user cannot die. So unless he grew to Uchiha levels of arrogance, or someone got a really lucky or well placed shot off on him, he was a 'Combat Immortal'.

"That's not the point, Naruto-kun. It's the principle of the matter."

Naruto sighed. "I saved her and I still had enough time and breath to perform the _Creation Rebirth_. That's all that matters."

"You were being a martyr." Kokuō seethed.

Naruto scoffed at the ridiculous notion. "I would never martyr myself just for some fangirl to make feeble attempts to fuck the object of her obsession. Her ambition is pathetic. Besides, I haven't even started learning Senjutsu yet, so it's not like I'm just going to let myself get killed."

'_Oh great,'_ he thought sourly. '_Now I sound like that fucking Uchiha.'_

"Do you dare change the subject, Naruto Senju."

He looked at the overreacting Bijuu. "What's wrong with you, Kokuō-chan?"

Normally, he had a tendency to be the unreasonable one of the pair. Usually, she was the voice of reason. Despite being highly intelligent, Naruto had moments where he was ruled by his emotions, or by a sudden aloofness.

"You. Could. Have. Died!" the Bijuu roared angrily.

Naruto's facial expression changed to that of confusion, but he didn't say anything more than a mumbled apology. It wasn't like she would die if he did. If anything, it could be considered a brief hiatus from the world. The Bijuu are creatures that are made of chakra; they are literally living, breathing chakra. Chakra is energy, the energy that is within and surrounds all things. Energy cannot be created or destroyed - unless one was the Rikudō Sennin - but instead, it is only transferred. Death to a Bijuu is to be dispersed until their chakra is capable of reforming in a different area at a different time. That time could be anywhere from a year to a century.

In short: Kokuō and her eight siblings were perfect immortals.

"Just don't do it again, Naruto-kun." she sighed tiredly. "I actually like you."

Kokuō, unlike a majority of her siblings, didn't particularly mind being tied to a jinchūriki. It sure beat the hell out of being bored all day. Even if she was a pacifist. On that note, a thought came to Naruto.

"Say, Kokuō-chan. Do you have a human form?"

Kokuō gave him a droll stare. "No, Naruto-kun. I'm just a being of infinite chakra that can level entire mountain ranges with a sudden movement of the tip of one of my tails. As such, I cannot imagine that I would have something so miniscule as a 'human form'."

"You're in a sassy mood today." Naruto stated dryly. "A very shouty and sassy mood."

"Be glad it's sassy and not slappy." she said as she flashed the horns on her head. "Or stabby."

Naruto shuddered and willed himself to wake with that horrifying thought. Compared to her, he was an ant. Getting impaled by one of her horns would more than likely mess him up that neither of his forbidden techniques would be able to help him.

'_Some pacifist you are,'_

* * *

Naruto opened his eyes and merely laid on a rather comfortable mattress. His body was sore. Then again, he did take a sword to the chest. Nigh immortal or not, he was not doing that again anytime soon. Immediately, he became aware of the other chakra signature in the plain room he was in. It was small, but had potential. He sat up slowly, looking upon a shock of pink hair and viridescent eyes.

"Sakura?" he rasped.

She looked...conflicted for reasons Naruto couldn't fathom. "H-How are you feeling, N-Naruto?"

He shrugged. "Sore."

She cracked a faint smile, but it faded almost as fast as it appeared. The conflict rose once again in her eyes, almost as if she didn't know if she wanted to do whatever it was she planned.

"Did Kakashi-sensei start us doing any training?" Naruto asked.

"He had us start tree-walking,"

Naruto rolled his eyes. Why in the middle of a C-rank turned B-rank mission when they didn't know if another threat was going to jump out of the woodwork?

"Alright," he started to get up.

"Why?"

Naruto paused and looked at the girl. He didn't say anything. She could be asking why he relieved the Demon Brothers of their arms then killed them. She could be asking why he was getting up so soon after being injured. She could be asking why he took the blade for her.

"Why what?" he finally asked.

Sakura suddenly found her shinobi sandals highly interesting as she fidgeted with the hem of her qipao. Her voice was very quiet. "W-Why did you sacrifice yourself for me?"

He sighed. "Because I didn't think you'd be able to get out of the way in time. Sasuke probably didn't even see it coming. I didn't think Kakashi-sensei would get there fast enough either, not that I think he wouldn't have been fast enough. Besides, I figured that I could heal off whatever was done to me… provided I wasn't decapitated, that is."

"I… t-thank you, Naruto." she whispered. "H-How did you move so fast?"

Naruto stretched as he stood and held his right arm out, heating his chakra and allowing the steam to rise from his palm. "Some of it is my natural speed. Some of it is my kekkei genkai, the Boil Release. Basically, it allows me to superheat my chakra to the boiling point and it gives me a massive boost of strength and speed."

Sakura raised a brow, the bookworm within rousing excitedly. "I've never heard of that kekkei genkai. Can... can you tell me about it, please?"

"It's a nature transformation kekkei genkai, which means I have the two nature affinities that make the nature transformation, and my body mixes them to get the desired result. Its a mix of Fire Release and Water Release chakra natures."

"Wow," Sakura breathed. "So do you know any water or fire release jutsu?"

Naruto shook his head. "No, I've been focusing on trying to match my Kaa-chan and Nee-chan in Medical Ninjutsu. I'm good, but I'm obviously not even close to their levels. But I do plan to learn."

"Oh," Sakura once again looked like she was part of a heavy internal debate, but after a few minutes she steeled herself and took a steadying breath. "I'm sorry that I was mean to you, Naruto. I-I know that it might not be enough, but -"

"The past is in the past. We're teammates." though he really didn't want to be, but hey, whatever. "If you need help training or anything just know I'm here to help."

The pinkette smiled brightly and nodded. Rising from her place, clearly proud of how everything turned out, she left and soon Kakashi came into the room. Naruto looked up at the one-eyed Jonin. He grinned, hoping that the fact that he possessed the Sharingan was severely screwing with the Uchiha mentally.

"Yo, sensei."

"How are you feeling, my cute little genin?" he gave his patented eye smile. "I'm glad to see you up."

"Thanks. I'm a little sore, but I'll live."

There was growling at the edge of his consciousness. No doubt Ko-chan still wasn't over his decision to take the blade for the girl. Though if she told him what the actual issue was, then they could work on it and move past it.

"I would hope so. I could only imagine what Tsunade-sama what do to me if her one and only son died under my care." the atmosphere suddenly grew heavy.

Naruto chuckled. "Then we might want to leave me getting stabbed out of the mission report. Hell, if I died, she might have resurrected me just to kill me herself."

His mother could be quite ridiculous at times, but he loved her.

"Do you know where the hospital is, by any chance. Might as well get acquainted before I start working on analysing the Demon Brothers' weapons and poison."

Kakashi shook his head no, but suggested that he ask the bridge builder's daughter. When Naruto asked about training, Kakashi said that he'd be happy to teach the boy a few water release and fire release techniques, especially since he'd already mastered tree and water walking. After a short conversation about his affinities and his kekkei genkai they left the room. Something the Jonin learned about one of his genin was that his favorite jutsu revolves around poison; though he probably shouldn't have been as surprised as he was, given his introduction. Unlike his sister, he could produce numerous venoms via the jutsu whereas hers were all fatal.

Together, Naruto and Kakashi left the room and made their way into the kitchen. In the kitchen was a woman with blue hair and delicate features. By Kami, she was gorgeous. In fact, he was in the Pure World as stared into her ethereal eyes. Then he heard a voice. Inari, the son of the heavenly woman standing before him with a smile, thought it his place to alert Team Seven of the futility their mission against Gato. Naruto was instantly annoyed. This wasn't the first time he'd heard the boy yell. In fact, while he was in and out of consciousness, he heard the initial tirade and learned that his name was Inari.

He walked up to the boy and knelt before him, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Listen. We are not heroes. We're shinobi; healers and killers that promised we would protect your grandfather."

Once again prophesying the imminent demise of Team Seven at the hands of Gato after insulting the blonde, Inari quit the room in a rather rude fashion. His mother called after him, but then turned and apologized to the Konoha shinobi. Kakashi waved her away and gestured to Naruto.

"This is Naruto Senju." he introduced as the blonde bowed respectfully to the mother. "And he wanted to know if you could show him to the hospital."

She smiled kindly. "I'd be glad to. Are you a medic?"

"Yep," he smiled with obvious pride.

* * *

For the next two weeks, Team Seven had been very busy. Sakura and Sasuke worked on mastering their tree walking skills while guarding Tazuna in shifts. Due to her small chakra reserves, the pinkette mastered it with little to no effort on her half, much to the ire of her dark haired teammate. If not in the Wave Hospital, performing operations and teaching the nurses or guarding the bridge builder when it was his turn, he was training with Kakashi. Between sparring and Ninjutsu, he was able to fine tune his particular style of combat. Usually, that boiled down to move fast and deal a lot of damage. He'd been sloppy in his fight with Zabuza; in truth, he was mainly accustomed to fighting untrained bandits, or disgraced samurai.

The citizens of the Wave all knew him by name, and no matter how much the insisted that they didn't refer to him with any kind of honorific, the older civilians referred to him the _-sama _honorific. It irritated him, but due to his dream, he figured that he should just get used to it. His uncles and mother were referred to as _-sama_. When not guarding Tazuna at the bridge, helping at the hospital, or training with Kakashi and his team, he would help Tsunami around the house. The woman was a pleasure to be around and they got to know each other better than Naruto would have expected. The day before he met Haku, a rather beautiful woman that claimed to be a man, Inari had once again taken up his hobby of preaching about how inevitable Team Seven's defeat was.

Having had enough, Naruto stood in front of the boy and gave him a kunai that he personally infused with poison. A poison so deadly that the smallest scratch was guaranteed to put even the strongest of shinobi down. Naturally, he gave Tsunami three vials of the antidote.

"_Gato is a little man that hides behind money."_ the Senju had told the boy. "_He has no true power. And if we don't kill him, you can stab me with that kunai. I don't think even I could survive that."_

A half lie, given the fact that he was immune to any poison he created. Something he personally saw to. But the poison on that sheathed kunai destroyed the body at the molecular level. After delivering his promise, he left to 'meditate'. Needless to say, Kokuo was highly upset with the promise he made to the boy, as she thought he was once again playing the part of a martyr. Naruto knew that he wasn't as he fully intended to kill the little man for what he'd done to the Land of Waves. It was disgusting. Hell, he couldn't even count the number of thugs and bandits he'd put down while walking around.

That night, he'd inadvertently said out through the night. He was analysing the poison within the gauntlets of the Demon Brothers and even managed to find that the chains were made of chakra metal. He was going to have a little too much fun for hours to come.

When he opened his eyes, he was face to face with a woman that was almost as beautiful as Tsunami, with expressive brown eyes and dark hair that fell to her shoulders and framed her fair face. In her arms was a basket, but he could also see the faint glint of metal within the weaving of the basket. A senbon?

"You shouldn't sleep out here," she smiled. "You'll catch a cold."

Naruto sat up and smiled. "It'll take a lot more than a cold to keep me down."

'_Like a sword to the chest,' _he thought, chuckling at his own macabre humor.

Kokuo rolled her eyes and went to sleep. Naruto and Haku continued to conversed as he helped her gather herbs for her injured friend. Naruto liked her; she was kind, but blunt. Her eyes, while very expressive, held a deep sadness to them. It reminded him of his mother in a way. When he got back to Konoha, he was going to take her and his sister out. Just the three of them. After Haku left, he went back to Tazuna's house where he was met by a worried Tsunami and Kakashi. Surprisingly, Sakura was also worried about where he'd been. Weird, after there little talk, he and Sakura had become closer. Of course, she still obsessed over Sasuke, and Naruto still more than happily ignored it.

He had the feeling, though, that tomorrow was going to be one hell of a day.


	5. Chapter 5

"_Darkness comes. Many lie down to sleep. Some do not get up again."_

Naruto shuddered at the memory of one of the first things that Kokuō had ever told him. He'd just turned six when he became aware of her presence, and they were soon fast friends. There were times where he wondered if he and his Bijuu could ever be more than friends, but then common sense took over and forced him to question how exactly that would work itself out. Even with the blood running in his veins that caused him to live well over three hundred years, he didn't know if that would be enough time. Perhaps he should've joined Uncle Orochimaru in his pursuit of perfect immortality. Nah, he'd just be another Kabuto. He could live without that.

There was banging at the front door that ripped him from Naruto from his thoughts. The banging became more and more violent, the wooden door soon splintering and breaking.

'_Those bastards…'_ Naruto thought. '_How dare those fucks break down someone's door like they own it!'_

Granted his mother often did it when his Uncle Jiraiya got too handsy, but technically it wasn't her breaking it. She simply punched the everloving life out of the Toad Sage and sent him crashing into and through the nearest construct. If it wasn't one of Orochimaru's _Rashomon_ -which Naruto had been privy to on _that_ particular day- it was a ceiling or door. Naruto sighed and ceased arguing semantics with himself as he returned to the issue at hand.

Behind him, Tsunami held Inari close to her, while the boy held a loaded crossbow in his hands. He was ready to protect the woman who held onto him with the intent of taking whatever blow would come their way as she turned to protect him.

It reminded him briefly of his sister that would hold him close whenever his mother went on her bi-weekly rampage. Hopefully he missed the one that no doubt almost leveled most of Konoha. Hell, he'd be surprised if there was even a Konoha left by the time he and his team returned. If there was, it wouldn't be that way long once she learned of his… brief moment of martyr-like stupidity.

"Out of the way, brat." the taller of the two men tried to push past Naruto and scowled with the boy didn't budge an inch.

Instead, the blonde stepped on his foot and loosed an uppercut into the man's stomach. Naruto had seen his mother liquify someone's insides before, but as he did and the man expelled horrid smelling viscera in the form of crimson liquid, he could only say that it felt weird. The man crumpled into a lifeless heap in his own liquified innards.

"Fix the damn door." he said, only to facepalm moments afterwards.

He killed the man before he told them to…

'_For fuck's sake.'_ he thought. '_Ko-chan, I'm a failure.'_

The snickering at the edge of his consciousness let him know that she found his plight entertaining. The other man standing in the broken door shook in terror. He thought that the blonde boy was nothing more than the bitch's bastard son, but he only knew he was wrong when cold blue eyes rested on his own. Before he could turn and run, a hand wrapped tightly around his throat.

"Now here's the fun part," Naruto said with a sadistic smile. "You're going to answer my two questions truthfully and I'm going to kill you. Blink twice if you understand."

"_Don't you mean 'or', Naruto-kun?"_

Naruto ignored the teasing tone as the man obeyed, blinking twice before he felt both his colon and bladder relieve themselves simultaneously. The killing intent the blonde emanated through eye contact alone was unlike anything the disgraced samurai had come across before. It was both humbling and beyond terrifying.

"Where is Gato?"

The simple fact that the boy's voice was so calm when his eyes promised a fate worse than the man he killed moments prior was even more nightmare inducing than the look in his eyes. The man resolved himself to, if he somehow survived this encounter, return to the Land of Iron and beg Mifune-dono's forgiveness.

"O-On his way to the b-bridge." he stammered out.

Naruto nodded. "And why were you and your friend here?"

"W-We were just following orders. T-To get the bridge builder's family and bring them back to the bridge."

Naruto nodded and tightened his grip on the man's throat, forcing his mouth to open wider. The blonde licked his lips and did the one thing he'd been dying to do since the day before the bell test.

"_Ninja Art: Poison Mist."_ he exhaled, blowing a dense purple fog directly into the man's open mouth and nostrils before he released his grip.

The disgraced samurai inhaled greedily, taking in as much oxygen as he could. His body seized up immediately, frozen and trembling. Naruto knew that it felt like every single cell within the man's body was simultaneously melting and being pierced. As the man struggled to breathe, Naruto conjured two shadow clones and hooked his thumb in the direction of the corpse still in the house.

"Please clean that up and protect them until we get back."

The clones gave crisp salute with a broad grin. "You got it, boss."

With a wink to the mother and son, who were looking at him as though he were Kami incarnate, Naruto vanished.

* * *

"I see that blonde brat of yours is gone." Zabuza grinned viciously. "I still have a bone to pick with him."

Kakashi said nothing, struggling to hold his ground against the Missing-Nin, his kunai grinding against the sword. None of his usual tricks were working. It was as though their brief battle opened his mind to the mind games the Sharingan wielder normally employed to gain the upper hand.

"I'll admit," Zabuza continued as he blocked a punch from the other man. "I felt a little bad for the brat taking the blade to the chest. In fact, I was hoping to get you."

The Konoha-Nin scowled, having figured as much already. Something felt off. Acting off basest instinct, Kakashi backflipped away the exact moment that a shock of blonde made itself known.

"_Boil Release: Unrivalled Strength."_ Zabuza eyed Kakashi wearily, thinking it was another one of the other man's mind games. "_Heavenly Spear Kick."_

_Snap!_

Zabuza arched his back involuntarily, the force of the blow forcing the grip on his blade to fade entirely. The sensation of the attack was bizarre; it was instant pain unlike anything he'd ever felt before, but in a flash it was gone and he couldn't feel anything below the waist. The older man's body was flung like a ragdoll, rolling across the bridge and landing at Kakashi's feet. He's breathing was erratic, his face contorted with both pain and confusion. Truthfully speaking, Haku had been telling him to just forget the job. His tool had a sinking suspicion that this would be, perhaps, their last mission. Even now, as he stared up at the shocked and pitiful gaze of Kakashi of the Sharingan, he thought that he should've taken Haku's advice.

"Zabuza-sama!" the roar was furious, a cry that held deepest emotion for the owner of the name.

The dome of mirrors made from crystalized ice chakra immediately crumbled, revealing Sasuke who looked like a pin cushion and figure in a Kiri Hunter-Nin mask. In a burst of speed, the masked-nin abandoned the unmoving Uchiha and appeared before Naruto. In both hands, the shinobi held three senbon in between the spaces of their fingers. They were fast. Lightning chakra coated Naruto's right hand, and as he ducked the initial attack, he touched the back of the masked-nin's neck.

"_Body Pathway Derangement."_ Naruto allowed the lightning chakra to attack the other shinobi's nervous system, rearranging the signals of the body.

The masked-nin fell, as their feet didn't seem to follow whatever directions given. Instead, they struggled to even move properly. Naruto walked up and removed the porcelain mask as Sakura rushed over to Sasuke. He gasped.

"Haku," Naruto muttered, though part of him wasn't surprised. Having met literally everyone that was a citizen, she was the only one -aside from the smattering of thugs and bandits that he put in the ground- that he couldn't recognize. Even still, he thought nothing of helping her pick herbs for her 'friend's' well-being. "Please, just stay still. I don't want to kill you."

She glared at him with a look of deepest loathing, a look that he returned backed by monstrous killing intent. Her glare was immediately replaced by the look of fear as the killing intent worthy of tailed beast washed over her. Naruto didn't take too kindly to being glared at. Only two people were immune, four if he counted his teammates. He seldom did.

There was a slow clapping as a group of some five hundred men joined the shinobi on the bridge. Each of the men wielded a weapon; a sword, axe, a length of chain. Naruto giggled to himself at his luck - now the people he was coming across were definitely utilizing chain so that he could add more and more to the jutsu he more or less created the night before he met Haku.

"Well, well, well." the short man in a rather fancy suit and shades said. "What-"

Naruto, cool and collected, picked up Zabuza's sword. It had a nice weight to it, ensuring that no weakling would be able to wield it. With a look of utmost jubilation, he looked to his sensei.

"Okay, this is going to be some of the most fun I've had." he snickered as steam began to erupt from his body once more.

Kakashi began to wonder what the boy meant before he turned the blade in hand, holding it in a reverse grip. With his left hand, he held up a one handed ram seal and smiled at the solid clone that appeared with its own broad grin.

"Go long," said the original as he threw the sword like a spear, his _Boil Release_ enhanced strength making it act as a projectile fired from a cannon.

There was more steam as the clone raced forward in a blur of white and yellow. The _shluck _let Naruto know that he hit his target, since Gato was at the front of his group of three hundred. The little man was skewered on the blade of the Kubikiribōchō, his blood being absorbed the weapon. The blonde clone appeared at Gato's flank and grabbed the hilt of the sword before the force with which it was thrown could take now dead man off of his feet.

"_Ninja Art: Poison Mist."_

When Naruto's clone returned to his side, he roared an exhale, a dense purple fog engulfing the small army of three hundred. Immediately, the bandits and former samurai started coughing and dropping, one by one, then ten by ten until they'd all hit the floor.

'_Well that was anticlimactic.'_ he thought. '_I would have expected at least one of them to hold their breath. Dumb asses. What do you think, Ko-chan?'_

The scoff at the back of his mind was his answer. He chuckled and turned back to the group. Sakura was happy that Sasuke was okay though she looked rather fearfully at the blonde, while Sasuke looked put off at the display of a jutsu that he'd never heard of. Either that, or he was upset that Haku managed to show him a true elite. Kakashi, Haku, and Zabuza were gobsmacked at the boy that had the Kubikiribōchō resting on his shoulder with Gato impaled on it.

"Naruto-nii!"

The whole of the Land of Wave stood before them, armed and ready to war. This, of course, was before Naruto swung the sword and relieved it of the now lifeless body of the miniscule tyrant at their feet. They stared at him, then the corpse, then back to him. All jaws were dropped.

"You're free." he smiled.

* * *

A month.

That was how long her baby had been away from home. Tsunade sighed, which was quickly followed by a sigh from Shizune. They both missed the little ball of sunshine dearly. They knocked on the door to the Hokage's office.

"Come in." the buxom blonde and her apprentice entered before catching sight of Team Seven and the bright, goofy grin on the face of the blonde. "Ah, Tsunade, Shizune-chan. Come in and hear about the exploits of Team Seven."


	6. Chapter 6

Naruto sat under a tree on the empty Training Ground Seven, enjoying the silence. He and his team had been given the next week off to recuperate from their mission. Naruto maintained that it was some of the most fun he'd had since moving permanently to Konohagakure. He found it funny how they showed up in the Hokage's office merely seconds after they'd come in to report.

* * *

"_The exploits of Team Seven, huh?" Tsunade said, raising a brow expectantly._

_The more collected of the two, Shizune looked several years younger after looking upon the face of her beloved younger brother. He could tell that she was taking his absence just as hard as his mother had been. Hell, Tsunade still looked as though she were ready to rampage if it sounded like anything untoward had happened to him specifically._

"_All right, Jōnin Kakashi and Team Seven." Hiruzen greeted them professionally, his tone shifting to 'Hokage-Mode'. "Welcome back from your mission. I take it you were successful?"_

_Kakashi nodded crisply. "Yes, Hokage-sama."_

_Hiruzen returned the nod. "Full report."_

_Kakashi launched into the tale of the past month; telling about the attack of Kirigakure's Demon Brothers, Tazuna's plea, the attack from Zabuza, and the final battle, all of which the blonde genin had an active role in. Each word spoken made Hiruzen's brows rise higher, while the pride in the hearts of the two medical kunoichi swelled thicker and thicker. He told of the exploits of the whole team, though remained professional as he omitted the constant dates Sakura had asked Sasuke on, and the constant demands for a fight that Sasuke made to Naruto. Of course, Naruto continually dismissed his teammate as he was too busy helping in the hospital. He flinched when his sensei mentioned his whole getting stabbed deal, but grinned when he mentioned the one-kick victory he held over Zabuza._

"_Afterwards, he picked up Zabuza's sword and speared Gato with it. When the clone returned to his side with the impaled corpse, he performed a sealless jutsu that allowed him to release a poison gas from his mouth. Truth be told, the whole final battle was kind of anticlimactic, but he healed Sasuke and Zabuza."_

_Naruto nodded as the tall man, who now walked with an extremely subtle limp, and the girl who claimed to be his tool entered the Hokage's office. Hiruzen raised a questioning brow as Tsunade and Shizune swapped concerned looks. _

"_The brat broke my spine with a kick." Zabuza grumbled, as though it pained him to admit. "He healed me after everything was said and done, but asked if I could teach him my Water Prison and Hiding in Mist techniques."_

_Tsunade guffawed, thinking it was poetic justice in a way; he ran her son through with a sword, only to get spinal tapped in the end. Shizune, on the other hand, at least had the decency to attempt to stifle her laughter with a cough. Needless to say, that made Haku uncomfortable and pissed Zabuza off more than admitting that a kid broke his spine._

_Naruto only sighed in relief that his mother didn't try to kill his sensei, Zabuza, or him for the whole getting stabbed incident… unless she was biding her time. Now that was a terrifying thought._

* * *

"You've got to be kidding me." said Naruto as he analysed the poison wielded by the Demon Brothers. "That's what I was missing for a neurotoxin formula this entire time?"

He hurriedly unsealed a single notebook flipped to the last page and wrote the chemical makeup, and antidote, and made other notes. He was scribbling away, his pen moving so fast at it was making an audible sound. Needless to say, Naruto was a bit miffed. How had those two mediocre chunin know how to make neurotoxin this potent and he didn't? Though, to be fair, he could've gone to Yamanaka's Flowers and just picked up some neurotoxin from their and analysed it. But then that would have involved him running into Ino, and much like his pink haired teammate, she would not shut up about the blessing from Kami-sama that was Sasuke Uchiha. If he was Kami's gift to the world, he would convert to Jashinism without hesitation.

As if Kami herself wanted to challenge that, his fellow blonde strolled up the where he was situated and sat daintily beside him. She said nothing as he finished filling in the blanks that he left in the notebook, seemingly connecting the dots. Ino took note of the three open textbooks before him and four bowls, each housing a different liquid, or liquid component. With a satisfied sigh, he closed the notebook, and sealed it and the liquid filled bowls in their respective scrolls before doing the same with his textbooks.

"How was your mission?" Ino asked when his blue eyes bore into hers, messing even more with her confusing feelings. "When did you get back?"

"Eh, earlier today." The other blonde shrugged and leaned back. "It was pretty fun, I guess."

Inwardly, he was gushing about how he managed to liquify that one poor bastard's insides with a single punch. It was a satisfying feeling; so much so that he released another self-satisfied sigh, topped with a nice smile. He didn't notice Ino's frown or the way she shifted uncomfortably.

"W-Why didn't you come see me?" she could not believe she actually said that. "I would've liked to know that my friend was back from his mission. You know, the one I didn't know you were on until your sister told me?"

Naruto frowned a bit, but decided to tease her. "What are you, my wife?"

That sent Ino's mind into a frenzy, the poor blonde girl subject to her own imagination conjuring images that were once ruled by Sasuke Uchiha, but were now dominated solely by the rather exotic looking blonde before her. A heated blush painted her cheeks as her eyes glazed over.

* * *

_The sun had set over Konohagakure, plunging the village into a darkness that was offset by the light of the full moon overhead, as well as the street lamps spread throughout the village. It had been a relaxing day for Ino Senju (née Yamanaka); her beloved husband paid for an all inclusive day of relaxation at the spa for her. She'd gotten a nice deep tissue massage, enjoyed a soak in the hot springs, and even had some crisp and rather expensive champagne. Yes indeed, Ino was the envy of the kunoichi in Konohagakure. She and her husband were known as Konoha's Blonde Power Couple. Neither of them were Kage, but due to the power they wielded, and her husband's position as head of Konoha Hospital, they were greeted as Senju-sama. She loved it, but it irritated her blonde bombshell to no end._

_Now at their home in the Senju Compound, Ino ran through everything to make sure it was perfect. After all, such a caring and diligent husband only deserves the best. Eyes alight with the flames of determination, she stripped completely and put on her husband's cooking apron. She purchased it for him a while back for his birthday as a joke; it was garishly pink with purple accents and read 'Kiss the Cook, or No Food.' Of course, since it was from her, the blonde goofball loved it and always wore it. She would pay his levied fee, which for some strange reason always end up with her bending over the kitchen counter (not that she was complaining in the least), and he would make her a mouthwatering dinner complete with dessert._

_She'd heard about this somewhat cliche way of greeting one's husband from that damned Forehead-Girl. She had Sasuke and Ino had Naruto, but that damn pinkette would always covertly try to shoehorn in on her happiness. In any case, she'd said that the Uchiha didn't like it. Given how two males were total polar opposites, Ino decided to try her hand at it. Styling her hair in a messy bun, she made her way to the front door and sat on her knees._

_Thankfully, she didn't have to wait long. The lock clicked and Naruto walked in with his briefcase in one hand and a bouquet of roses in the other. Ino felt her heart sing; roses were her favorite flower. When his gaze met hers, she rose slowly before sauntering seductively closer to her husband._

"_Welcome home, anata." she purred._

_His eyes wide, Naruto would set his briefcase down and wrap his arms around Ino's waist while she pressed her body against his. "Thanks, Ino-chan. How was your day?"_

"_It was wonderful, thanks to you." she said, rubbing a hand across his broad chest and shoulders. "But I have a better question."_

"_Yeah?" the roses were on top of his briefcase, now forgotten as his hands traversed her bare back and plump rear. "And what would that be?"_

"_What would you like first? Dinner, a bath… or me?"_

_Naruto, being ravenous for his wife, would press her roughly against the wall and assault her with his seasoned mouth. She loved it when he was rough. Her blonde pressed white hot kisses to her neck and, after removing the pesky apron, across her bare breasts. Down her taut tummy, until he reached the glistening valley of her-_

* * *

"Ino!" Naruto gently shook the spaced out blonde, as her nose started bleeding rather heavily. "Ino, come back to me."

Green medical chakra coated his hand as he searched for any sign of damage in her body. He shook his head when he found that there was literally nothing wrong with her, wondering what caused the phenomenon of spontaneous nosebleeds. It was fascinating to the medic in him, since no matter how profusely one bled, it never subtracted from the body's natural amount of blood. In addition to that, there was never any damage done to any of the blood vessels in the nose or head to cause such powerful bursts of spontaneous bleeding. They were common in his Uncle Jiraiya and they only happened when…

'_Great,'_ he groused mentally. '_And here we have another pervert. Hopefully she isn't too pervy around Kaa-chan...otherwise it'll get messy.'_

Ino gave a violent twitch before she returned to the present. The bowels of her imagination was a dangerous place to be. Originally, she'd come to see if he wanted to go out sometime or get started on that lesson on poisons he agreed to all that time ago, but her little romp in Imagination Island left her wanting. With a defeated sigh, her pupiless cornflower blue eyes sudden burned with the fire of determination. She had a plan.

"Welcome back to the land of the living." said Naruto in a teasing manner. "Anyway, was there something you wanted or did you just want to hang out."

Ino scoffed. "Whatever, Whiskers. And yes to both questions; I actually wanted to see if you had time to teach me about poisons like you said a while back."

Upon hearing the word 'poison', Naruto's eyes instantly lit up with excitement. He made a movement that could be considered a twitch, but when Ino blinked, they were nearly nose to nose. The female of the blonde duo could compare the heat in her face to an open furnace. She had to admit though, his excitement was rather contagious.

"Do you want to go to the Hospital, the flower shop, your house, or my house?" he asked, barely containing his mounting excitement.

"Uh, your house, I guess." she shrugged.

"An excellent choice!" he said. "My mom and sister are at the hospital, so we'll be alone. No distractions."

With an excited squeal that was completely out of character for this rather masculine genin, he scooped Ino up bridal style and took off in a blur of white and blonde. In his excitement, he missed the fact that Ino resembled a blonde tomato.

* * *

Tsunade and Shizune shared a smile as they made the trek back to the Senju compound. It was good to have their little ball of sunshine back in the village. Tsunade had gone on a verbal rampage after Team Seven was dismissed and the former Kiri-Nin were led to T&I where they would be interrogated and detained for roughly seventy-eight hours. She wanted to break the man that dared hurt her little Sochi. Shizune was quiet about it, but she nodded her agreement, her dark eyes hard as she glared at the tall man. There was an itch at the back of her throat that usually came when she wanted to use her signature jutsu and poison someone.

'_And she wonders why Naru-chan has the responses he does.'_ Tsunade thought once the other woman explained why she cleared her throat when she gets riled up.

It was funny how the little blonde resembled the perfect fusion of master and apprentice, with little dashes of Jiraiya and Orochimaru every now and then. Headstrong, but kind hearted. Gentle, but viciously brutal to the point of sadism in battle. Intelligent, but ever thirsty for knowledge. Goofy enough to make anyone underestimate him, but strong enough to make anyone fear him.

Truly, the heir to the Senju was a walking disparity. Tsunade found it rather enchanting to watch the complex being that was her baby boy; a weird way to describe one's child, but whatever, it worked well enough.

"Where do you think otōuto-kun will take us, Tsunade-sama?" Shizune asked.

The boy said that he would treat them to dinner tonight, but remained secretive when they tried to coax it out of him. Unfortunately, Shizune had already gifted him the book that could've been used as a bargaining chip. The older woman looked thoughtful as they entered their home.

"Probably somewhere with a sake and dango."

"Um...Tsunade-sama?"

"What is it, Shizune?"

The dark haired apprentice to the Sannin pointed at a second pair of shinobi sandals that rested neatly next to the black pair that Naruto wore. In comparison, the other pair was slightly small in size, possibly belonging to a young girl. A furious storm cloud could be the only thing that properly described the murderous look on Tsunade's face. She would be damned if some floozy defiled her son in their own house!

With the rage of a thousand scorned kunoichi and the stealth of the greatest Anbu, both master and apprentice raced silently upstairs. Both prayed that they didn't find the sight they imagined. Otherwise there would be hell to pay, and it would be paid with blood.

* * *

Ino was astounded at the home of the Senju family, and more specifically Naruto's bedroom. Even more specifically than that, she was rather impressed with the wealth of knowledge that was held in the boy's room. Three of the four walls in the bedroom were covered completely by bookshelves, each shelf loaded with various subject matters relating to medicine, anatomy, poisons and the like. Scrolls for various jutsus also littered the bookshelves. A good portion of the lower shelves were taken up by notebooks, no doubt holding the knowledge he'd gain from his travels over the years. There was even a couple scrolls that held the Sunagakure symbol on them. Curiously, Ino opened it and read _Medical Water Release: Jellyfish_.

"You can use Water Release?" she asked.

From his place in a file cabinet sandwiched in between the bookshelves, Naruto made a sound of agreement. "Yeah. Water Release, and Fire Release."

That was beyond impressive. To her knowledge, Asuma-sensei could only use Wind and Fire Release. "How can you find out what type you are?"

Naruto turned to his fellow blonde with an incredulous look on his face. "You don't know what your chakra natures are?"

Embarrassed, Ino shook her head. Naruto walked over to her after stopping by the desk beside the door and grabbed a square piece of paper. Holding it towards the girl, she looked at it then turned her expectant gaze to him. He gestured for her to take it. She did and that was when he started his explanation.

"That is Litmus Paper, a highly conductive paper that reacts differently to the different chakra natures. Go ahead and pour your chakra into it."

Ino did, but what happened next startled her. In a three fold reaction, the paper ignited, then was immediately doused by the paper soaking itself, only for it to crumble into dust afterwards. Ino stared at Naruto dumbfounded. Naruto raised an impressed brow and nodded appreciatively.

"Fire Release, Water Release, and Earth Release." Naruto noted. "Both highly ironic, and would make you training with me extremely easy."

"You'd train with me?" Ino asked. Her teammates were either too lazy or too engrossed in eating to train with her, not that she bothered outside of team meetings. However, she had a plan now.

Naruto nodded with a noncommittal shrug. "Well we're friends, aren't we?"

"Friends don't avoid each other." Ino countered teasingly.

Once again, Naruto shrugged. "Friends also don't blather on about a boy that's little more than an arrogant prick."

Ino scoffed. Deep down, she knew the other blonde was right. "Anyway, do you know how to do any Water Release and Fire Release jutsu?"

"Yeah," he said putting a single notebook and textbook down on his desk, followed by some corked vials of liquid. "But we can do that another time, since you originally came for poisons."

Without another word, Ino sat at the desk while Naruto stood over her. He was so close, she could feel his warmth. It wasn't normal to be so warm, and yet he was. All of a sudden the bedroom door flew off its hinges and crashed through the window. In the doorway stood his voluptuous mother and lithe sister, both carrying the looks of righteous fury on their faces. Ino jumped and squeaked frightened, pressing as close as she could to the only male in the room. Naruto sighed and looked tiredly to the two older women.

"Hi Kaa-chan." he grinned. "Hi Nee-chan."

"Sochi-kun," Tsunade started in a sickly sweet tone. "What is she doing here?"

He looked down to Ino who looked as though she were trying to phase through his chest in order to hide. With a sigh, he detached the younger blonde female from himself and sat her back down.

"Initially, I was going to teach her some stuff about poisons." he admitted.

The change in Shizune was instant as she clambered past her master and planted herself on her little brother's bed, intent on listening to this lesson. Pride was evident on her face. Tsunade shrugged and leaned against the doorframe, waving her hand as though to say 'Continue.' The Senju heir sighed.

"Alright then, let's get started then." he said, rolling his shoulders. "First and foremost, it is wholly inaccurate to label everything in this particular subject as a 'poison'."

"What do you mean?" she asked, her brows furrowed.

"A _poison_ is a toxin that is ingested or administered through contact. Take a mushroom, for example. Some have poisonous spores and are just innately poisonous. They cannot control whether or not they administer their toxins. A _venom_, on the other hand, is a toxin that is injected directly into a wound. Take for example a spider or snake. They can control whether or not they administer their particular toxin."

Ino nodded. It made sense, though it made her wonder why the whole group was regarded as 'poisons'.

"Now there are many different kinds of toxins, for too many to even begin to name, but I use only four. The first of which is a hallucinogen. Despite my chakra control, I cannot perform genjutsu, which is weird, but I developed my own brand of this toxin when we went to the Genjutsu Tree Village. As the name suggests, it causes the victim see hallucinations, similar to a genjutsu, but with no chakra usage. Follow me so far?"

Ino nodded, clearly fascinated. She couldn't wait to tell her mom and dad about this. "And the other three?"

"Hemotoxin, cytotoxin, and neurotoxin."

"You finally got the complete formula for neurotoxin?" Shizune asked excitedly.

Naruto nodded, sharing her excitement. "I got it after analyzing the gauntlets of the Demon Brothers. I can show it to you if you want!"

Shizune nodded. Oh, it would make paralysing those perverted bastards that've been hitting on her for the last month so damn easy. She'd ask Naruto to help her out with it, but he'd more than likely kill the poor bastards. They didn't need that kind of problem on their hands.

"Anyway, a hemotoxin effects the blood. More specifically, it attacks red blood cells and causes blood to coagulate."

To prove his point, Naruto poured a vial of blood in a small glass dish. After swishing it around, he grabbed a vial of red liquid and administered a drop or two. The effect was almost immediate. The blood turned darker, and when Naruto swirled it in the bowl, it was not as free flowing as it once was, but moved as though it were a crimson ball. It made Ino sick, but as a shinobi, she'd more than likely see worse. She stomach dropped just thinking about it. Naruto noticed his mother stiffen and quickly tossed the whole bowl through his broken window. He gave her an apologetic look, and she smiled reassuringly.

"Cytotoxin works on the cellular level, destroying cell membrane and the cells of the body themselves, one by one. This eventually causes necrosis."

Ino cocked her head to the side and Naruto had to resist the urge to glomp the poor girl. "Necrosis?"

"The death of all or most of the cells in an organ or tissue." Shizune translated, smiling at her brother's pout. "Basically, the affected areas turn black and are effectively dead."

"Yeah. And the last one is neurotoxin, which attacks the central nervous system. This in and of itself causes paralysis, respiratory failure, and death. Which means, if you use it on an enemy, you would have to keep them stabilized if you needed to bring the, back for interrogation."

Ino nodded, her mind reeling with the information she'd just been fed. Naruto rested a hand on her shoulder and assured her that they would talk about it more in depth another time. For the time being, however, he let her borrow his copy of _Beginner's Book of Poisons, vol. 1_. The text was well worn, as though the own had read it thoroughly and many times. He did, of course, but what did anyone expect of him?

For the next few hours, Shizune and Tsunade had to smile as the ball of sunshine held his fellow blonde captive as he started with the most basic of the toxins he possessed, which was the hallucinogen. When the Yamanaka heiress left later, she felt the strangest urge to run to her family's store and take stock of the toxins they had. In all of the excitement of actually learning something, she'd forgotten all about the plan she'd come up with. Before she left, she made Naruto promise that they would get together tomorrow, maybe train or grab lunch. Or both!

He agreed, but told her that she should probably get some sleep. The Senju heir had a sinking feeling that something strange was going to happen tomorrow, but he didn't know what.


	7. Chapter 7

"_I didn't even know that you could read, Ino-pig." Sakura taunted._

_The blonde heiress didn't even bother looking up, to engrossed in a rather familiar looking green and purple accented book. Hell, the Yamanaka girl barely committed to the dismissive wave aimed her way._

"_Busy," Said Ino shortly, then muttered to herself. "These marginal notes that Naruto-kun made are really good."_

'_Did she say Naruto-kun?' she wondered, then aloud said. "Ah, I see you're finally realizing the Sasuke-kun isn't interested in you. Good job, Pig."_

_If the other genin could hear her taunts, she wasn't making it known. It was pissing Sakura off to no end. Looking over the other girl's shoulder, she noticed that Ino was reading something titled Beginner's Book of Poison, if the name at the top of the page was anything to go by. Was that Naruto's book? Why was Ino-pig reading her teammate's book? She may not be interested in him romantically (nor would she ever admit that she was ever so slightly curious), but she was still slightly possessive over her teammates. He tanked a blade for her, after all. He deserved her kindness. _

"_Why do you have Naruto's book, Pig?" she snatched the volume away and was met instantly with a blood chilling glare._

_Ino glared at her former best friend and rival like she never glared at anyone before. "Give. It. Back."_

_Though she shivered, the mild killing intent that Ino was giving off sending her mind into flashbacks of her encounters with Zabuza, the pinkette stood her ground. Even though she was fairly certain that by further taunting the Yamanaka heiress, she was nominating herself to be target practice for her clan's Hidden Jutsu that would literally melt her mind._

"_Why do you have Naruto's book?" she asked again._

_The blonde kunoichi stood and snatched the volume back, still glaring at the other genin. She snarled at her former friend. "Naruto-kun gave it to me, since he's going to start training me. Besides, why do you care?"_

_A foreign sense of jealousy crawled thickly through her veins; foreign because it was in no way related to her beloved Sasuke-kun. She knew it was most likely because the blonde had offered to help her train as well. Hold up…_

"_Naruto-kun?"_

_Ino slipped a bookmark to save the page she was on as she stood and turned her back on her former friend. "Yes. Naruto-kun. Go ahead and pursue Sasuke to your heart's content."_

* * *

To say that Ino Yamanaka was thoroughly pissed off would be an understatement. The conversation between herself and her former friend from the day prior weighed heavily on her mind.

'_Leave it to that damn billboard brow to ruin my good mood.'_ The blonde thought bitterly.

It happened roughly an hour after she left Naruto's house. She made her way to the Dango restaurant to grab herself some dinner and dessert while she went ahead and read through _Chapter Six: Introduction to Hallucinogens _but the pinkette showed up and ruined her mood. When Ino returned home after that conversation, her parents found her room torn asunder while she stared rather longingly at the book.

Needless to say, she sat her parents down and had a long conversation with them. Her mother was proud that she was finally getting serious about her studies and had found someone to help advance the young blonde. Her father, on the other hand, was just glad she was over this obsessive devotion to Sasuke Uchiha; he could scarcely have a conversation with his precious dandelion without that damn brat being brought up. His relief was brief, however, as she regaled them with the tale of Naruto Senju. Inoichi Yamanaka had a single thought.

'_Well fuck,'_

Her mother told the blonde to invite the young man over for dinner, but to the rising panic of her father. Inoichi could do nothing more than bluster and stutter as his wife pulled him rather happily from their daughter's room.

Ino couldn't help but think about how fast she'd gotten over her obsession; it was distracting, when she actually paid attention to it. One day she was praying her heart out to Kami-sama above, hoping against hope that she would be on a team with the Last Uchiha. Then all of a sudden this boy comes in with hair like the sun and managed to tear her attention away from who she believed to be her soulmate at the time. Now he was sharing her knowledge with her. She grinned slightly before cleaning her room; it was more than Sasuke did.

The rest of the week was rather uneventful; when Naruto had time which was more often than not, Ino was with him. If they weren't having a lesson, then they were training. If they weren't training, then they were just enjoying each other's company. Sometimes, they would not train until much later and just enjoy being around each other. As much as Ino loathed sweating, she could already feel the results of her physical training; she had more energy, she could focus more, and her skin -when not drenched in sweat- had more of a glow to it. With the help of the younger of the blonde Senju, Ino mastered water walking; Asuma-sensei was good for something, seeing as how she had already mastered tree-walking.

As good and relatively uneventful as the week was, it wasn't without its low points. Fortunately, or unfortunately from Ino's perspective, those low points came in the form of her rival. Sakura Haruno seemed to be splitting her time between fawning over Sasuke and trying to get in between Ino and Naruto. Naruto, of course, didn't notice; or if he did, he didn't care. Neither option was really outside of the realm of possibility. By Saturday, however, Ino had enough.

"You're doing great, Ino." Naruto praised with a smile. "Just maintain the chakra flow."

Ino's hands were forming the snake hand seal and she was flowing earth chakra throughout her skin. Her normally fair skin was noticeably darker, a deeper brown than the earth below. Deep in concentration, her entire body was soon that earthy brown color. It was only Ino's platinum blonde hair that retained its original color. After about an hour, the female genin was starting to tremble, and after a few more minutes, she dropped the jutsu.

"That was excellent, Ino!" Naruto jumped in excitement. "You've come a long way in a week. Kind of making me jealous."

Ino blushed at the praise. "Only because I had an awesome teacher."

The other blonde smiled, but soon found that they were no longer alone. Pink and black sauntered onto the field; one looking bored, while the other look instantly annoyed. Ino looked to the sky and by Kami, she could swear that she saw her good mood take off like a damn bird. Naruto noticed his friend tense up, and followed her glare to his teammate. The pinkette was also sending her own glare to the other blonde. Now Naruto was the furthest thing from an idiot as possible, but he did have his airheaded moments, and for the life of him, he couldn't figure out the source of the problem. As far as he could tell, Ino was over Sasuke, so it couldn't be that… could it?

"What are you doing here, Ino-pig?" Sakura snarled.

Had the pinkette possessed any manner of strength or ability, that snarl might've given Naruto pause. But given who his mother and sister were, it was more like a kitten trying to be a tiger, or a puppy trying to be a wolf.

"Didn't know I needed your permission to do anything in this village, Forehead." Ino snapped. "Unless I should start calling you Hokage-sama."

Naruto expertly stifled his laugh by disguising it as a cough. He looked away in the direction of the brooding Uchiha and was instantly reminded of how much he wanted to bury him. He was almost done with his 'special project' and was waiting on the slightest cue to break the boy. For now, however, the boy was practicing his shurikenjutsu. The repetitive dull thunk of his shuriken and kunai hitting the tree was kind of hypnotic. Turning his attention back to the other blonde and the pinkette, he found himself looking into a pair of viridescent eyes and another pair of pupiless cornflower blue eyes.

"I'm sorry, what?" he asked sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

Ino's eyes, once hard from glaring at her former friend, soften instantly when they met his cerulean whirlpools. "When are you going to take me out on a date, Naruto-kun?"

Okay, that settled it; she was over Sasuke. Sakura glared harsher still at the blonde female, which Naruto had no idea was possible. If looks could kill, his friend would have been dead several hundred times over. It was quite intimidating. Ino caught the look and turned her own glare to the pinkette.

"Hey Forehead, do you mind? Sasuke is over there." she said dismissively.

"A date?" said Naruto thoughtfully. "Um, what did you have in mind?"

"Dinner with my family," said Ino. "Tonight. Bring your mom and sister."

She ran off mere seconds before Kakashi-sensei made his presence known. The rest of the day was spent training, though Sakura was in a noticeably worse mood than when her crush rejected her. Naruto had a single thought that reverberated throughout his mind for the entirety of the day.

_'Would that even count as a date?'_

* * *

"It's very nice to meet the young man responsible for kicking my daughter's training into gear." said Akemi with a dazzling smile.

Ino's mother, a brunette that held an air of regality about her, chewed her rice thoughtfully as she and Inoichi scrutinized the sunny blonde boy that looked as though nothing in the world could touch him. In truth, given his two family members and his own strength, attested to by Ino herself, nothing probably could touch him. Given his status as heir to the Senju clan, only a fool would dare lay a hand on the boy within the walls of Konohagakure. Still, the older of the blonde males didn't take too kindly to boys getting too close to his baby girl. Said 'baby girl' was eyeing the boy intently, hanging on to his every word when he spoke, and making sure Inoichi himself didn't say anything untoward.

"Ino is incredibly intelligent," said Naruto. "I'm surprised she didn't make 'Kunoichi of the Year'."

The genin blushed furiously at his praise and continued to eat in silence. Of course, he knew why she didn't make Kunoichi of the Year. Sakura is such a bookworm that only she had the ability to continuously fawn over Sasuke and still have maintained top marks in class. He wouldn't hold that over her head, however.

Akemi chuckled at the praise her daughter received. "Nevertheless, we thank you for getting her in gear. I, personally, was afraid her little… crush would hamper her potential."

"Kaa-san!" the blonde girl hissed.

Naruto chuckled as well. "I'm only glad I can help."

Inoichi continued to scrutinize the youngest of the Senju, something that didn't escape the notice of Tsunade. The matriarch of the Senju clan had spent the entire trip to the Yamanaka compound in a state of irritability, grumbling the entire time about floozies trying to steal her Naru-chan. Naruto of course promised her that he wouldn't be going anywhere, and that even if he and Ino ended up in a...more intimate relationship, that he would still be her little Naru-chan. That managed to cheer the buxom blonde up to a degree, but look the other blonde adult was giving her beloved Sochi was riling her up.

"Anata," Akemi said dangerously.

Inoichi turned his gaze to his wife, and the pair seemed to be having a heated, yet silent debate. A debate that end when Akemi's right brow twitched. The Yamanaka clan head blushed furiously and cleared his throat. He looked back to Naruto.

Akemi smiled at Naruto and said. "Well, Naruto-san, what do you specialize in?"

"Medical Ninjutsu and Taijutsu." he answered easily.

"Taijutsu, you say?" Inochi asked with intrigue.

Naruto went into the details of the usage of his Boil Release kekkei genkai and what it did. The questions and answers went back and forth for the remainder of dinner, some aimed at Tsunade and other at Shizune, while the majority stayed with the younger blonde male. Somewhere towards the end of the dinner, however, Naruto made a rather important discovery.

'_There are way too many blondes in this house.'_ he thought, then paled. '_By Kami, if Ino and I have kids there's a good chance they'll all be blonde.'_

While after dinner tea was being served by Akemi, the question that Naruto was waiting on finally showed up. Shizune and Tsunade had to admit that they were having a relatively good time, at least until Inoichi opened his mouth again.

"What are your intentions for my daughter?" he asked.

Naruto just stared at the man, questing and more than a little curious. All eyes were on him; he could feel it. "To make her happy and keep her that way, I suppose."

In truth, while he could see himself dating Ino a little more clearly than previous, he still didn't really have any particular intentions. Unless he was in an operating theater or on a mission, he lived by a _'whatever happens will happen'_ kind of creed. If he and Ino did end up together, then he would cherish her and do his damndest to keep her happy. If they didn't, then there would be no point in him feeling negatively about it.

Inoichi nodded approvingly. As the Senju trio rose, the Yamanaka trio walked them to the door. Sharing a firm handshake with Naruto, and a still firmer handshake with Tsunade, he saw them off. Akemi hugged the trio. Ino conversed rather shortly with Naruto about a mission that was coming up for Team Ten. He nodded and told her that he would drop by in the morning to hand her off some supplies. She thanked him and, with a blush, pressed light kiss to his cheek. Shizune kept a firm grip on her master and mother figure to ensure that she didn't thrash the poor girl for showing their ball of sunshine some affection. His face went blank before he smiled and pulled her into a warm hug.

* * *

"What the hell do you mean Shikamaru's sick?" Ino shouted to her sensei.

Asuma sighed as he took a long drag of his premium cigarette, much to Ino's annoyance. Choji shifted uncomfortably in his spot. They needed another genin in order to take this C-ranked mission. The son of the Sandaime wondered briefly is Kurenai would let him borrow one of her genin, but Ino interrupted him at once.

"We could take Naruto-kun." she offered.

Both Asuma and Choji looked at her as though she'd grown another head. For the past two months, Ino had said little to nothing about Sasuke (which all male members of Team Ten were thankful to Kami above for) and spent more time reading books on poisons. In truth, it made them all more than a little uneasy, since they were all convinced that she would poison one or all of them. She'd even taken to asking Asuma for tougher train, most of which included him striking her with his full power while she kept up B-rank earth release jutsu.

So for her to add the '-kun' honorific to another boy's name meant something serious. Either way, Asuma heard about the boy's time in the Land of Wave and was beyond impressed. Medical Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Ninjutsu; he was a wild card that would make anyone think twice. With a shrug, he smiled and they headed towards the Hokage Tower. When they got there, however, Naruto was in the Hokage's office with a tall man that had to have been Zabuza.

"He and Haku can live in the Senju compound with us, Jiji." the boy clapped the taller man on the shoulder, much to the former Kiri-Nin's annoyance. "There's more than enough houses and no one is dumb enough to set foot in there."

The Sandaime took a long, thoughtful drag from his pipe, and blew the smoke from his nose. After a moment's thought, he nodded. "Be back here tomorrow at nine o'clock sharp with Haku for your respective tests."

Zabuza nodded respectfully before turning to find three members of Team Ten. He nudged the blonde beside him and jerked his head in their direction. The moment he saw Ino, a bright smile lit up his face, but he held his silence. For now, anyway.

"Morning, Tou-san." Asuma grinned. "We're here for a C-rank mission."

Hiruzen nodded sagely. "Ah, and where is Shikamaru-kun?"

"Sick."

"Do you have a temporary replacement?"

All eyes went to Ino, who was staring with a blush at Naruto. No one spoke, but all in attendance connected the dots rather quickly. Still realizing that they needed to give verbal confirmation, Asuma nodded and nominated Naruto. Hiruzen asked if it was okay with the blonde in question, which he answered with an emphatic 'yes'. After receiving the mission scroll, which detailed the delivering of a scroll to Mifune-dono of the Land of Iron, Team Ten, Naruto, and Zabuza left to pack for a month long trip. Asuma stayed back to talk to his father, however, curious about the second blonde he managed to pick up.

"Anything I should know about him, Tou-san?"

Hiruzen hummed thoughtfully. "According to Kakashi, he's powerful and despite initially freezing up, he quickly handled it. If there is a hospital, he will more than likely stray to it. Other than that? No."

Asuma nodded. '_Wild card, indeed.'_


	8. Chapter 8

The trip to the Land of Iron started out on an extremely positive note for Ino. First, the target of her affections agreed to join her team as the temporary stand in (quite excitedly she liked to add). Then he came to her house and gave her a kit of shinobi tools. With both of her parents present, she jubilantly opened her gift.

The box itself was black and embossed with the Senju crest on the top, tied rather elegantly in an amethyst bow. That detail alone got a girlish squeal out both of the Yamanaka females. Inoichi flinched violently, as he was wholly unprepared for such a sound at such an hour, spilling his piping hot coffee all over his outfit. Naruto gave his fellow blonde an apologetic grimace as the older man hissed in pain at the contact of scalding liquid.

Within the box lay a set of ten serrated kunai, twenty-eight serrated shuriken, forty neatly lined senbon, and a single lilac. Her breath hitched at how beautiful they were, each kunai possessing a hilt that looked like a rose. The girl looked to her crush with stars in her eyes. He grinned and lifted the top portion from its resting place. Ino gasped to find even more; four smoke bombs laced with hallucinogens, twenty pellets of his own design that he simply called 'haze' pellets, and a gas mask that went over her nose and mouth to protect her from any airborne toxins. Like her outfit, it was purple and instead of bearing the insignia of Konoha, it bore the crest of the Yamanaka clan.

Inochi gave a low whistle of appreciation, while holding his teary-eyed wife. Ino herself was robbed of words, convinced that no words could convey the gratitude her very soul was shouting loudly. She pounced on the poor blonde, knocking him over as he held her tightly.

When the duo met up with the rest of Team Ten, it was instantly obvious that something happened to Ino. She didn't complain about Asuma lighting his premium cigarette, nor did she complain about Choji enjoying his favorite brand of chips. Both males of the team swapped concerned looks, having a silent conversation the entire time.

'_This is it. Today's the day, Choji; we can only be thankful that Shikamaru isn't here, but we must remain strong.'_ Asuma's look seemed to convey.

Choji nodded a single time. '_I know, Asuma-sensei. Don't worry though, my clan has a strong constitution, so I'll taste any food she cooks first. If it tastes weird, I'll spit it out and we'll make a run for it.'_

Naruto walked up with Ino pressing rather closely to him. "Hey Choji. Asuma-sensei. What'cha whispering about?"

Both men swapped looks before staring dumbly at the male of the two blondes. Asuma took the cigarette from his mouth and examined it closely. Likewise, Choji examined his chips to make sure they weren't spiked with anything. The heir to the Sarutobi clan and the heir of the Akimichi clan were highly confused; they could have sworn that conversation had taken place within their minds. They were actually whispering the whole time?

Muttering something about embarrassing senseis and teammates, Ino claimed Naruto's hand and dragged him past the village gates. Asuma and Choji shared one more look before beginning their journey.

* * *

Sakura Haruno was not having a good day.

Looking back on it as the sun set, she wasn't at all surprised when she felt tears creeping down her cheeks. The pain in her chest was beyond anything she'd ever felt, a dull ache that was still somehow sharp and stabbing. Sakura was accustomed to rejection at the hands of her crush, or at the very least, that was what she would continue to tell herself. Wanting something else to feel the pain constricting her heart, she grabbed the photograph of her graduating class and cocked her arm back with the intention of smashing it against the wall.

But her eyes landing on the unsmiling form of Sasuke Uchiha. She froze as she stared into the photograph, his dark eyes immortalized in the prettiest frame she could create. Everyone else in the picture had their faces scratched out, the only exceptions being herself and Sasuke. Sakura couldn't even begin to count how many times she would stare at the image and allow her imagination to run rampant, fueling her already obsessive love. Her heart clenched painfully as a fresh wave of tears flowed. With a scream of coalescing rage and pain, she threw it, reveling in the loud shattering of glass.

"_Good morning Sasuke-kun!" Sakura greeted in earnest as she handed him a bento box. "I made this for you."_

_The Last of the Uchiha clan glared at her with a look of deepest loathing and went to practice his fire release jutsu until Kakashi-sensei showed up. With a sigh, she moved closer to her crush to cheer him on as he released string after string of fireballs. As per usual, he ignored her and continued training. _

"_Great job, Sasuke-kun." she smiled brightly at him, beaming with pride. Her Sasuke-kun was truly one of the most powerful shinobi of their generation._

_The boy of her dreams looked her in the depths of her viridescent eyes. "What did you do this entire time? You shouldn't just wait for Kakashi to come before you get any training done."_

_Sakura was taken aback. Had what he said been any different, perhaps more positive, it would have been a scene straight out of her sweetest dreams. She shrank back before a nice plan popped into her mind._

"_How about you train with me?" she asked with a smile. "Then we could get stronger together! Perhaps we could finally go on a date afterwards."_

"_Why would I lower myself to your level?" he asked with a sneer. "At least Ino got stronger. I might even take her from that blonde idiot."_

_That hurt more than Sakura was willing to admit. "What does that damn pig have that I don't?"_

"_Strength. Clan jutsu that would have made up for her worthlessness. She isn't a stalker." he paused and shuddered as though looking through less than savory memories. "Not as much as you, anyway. Besides, she's started taking being a shinobi serious; that alone would make someone want to save her, instead of dead-weight."_

_That hurt worse than the previous statement. "I-I can get stronger, Sasuke-kun. I-I just n-need some help."_

_The boy scoffed. "I'm surprised the idiot saved you from Zabuza. Maybe if you didn't make it back, we would've gotten a teammate that wouldn't hold me back."_

_At that moment, Sakura felt as though she were the one who Zabuza stabbed. Her entire world came crashing down around her as her heart constricted painfully, seeming like it was going to burst from his cold words. Without another word, she turned around and sprinted towards her house, intent on trying to outrun the pain lacerating her insides. She heard him say one last thing._

"_Pathetic."_

Sakura Haruno was not having a good day; it was safe to say that she was indeed having the worst day of her life. With a broken heart and aching head, she curled up under her blankets and cried herself to sleep. There was one thought she held onto like a lifeline, however. A single memory from their time in the Land of Wave.

_"The past is in the past. We're teammates."_ he'd told her with that kind smile that seemingly unique to him, and him alone. _"If you need help training or anything just know I'm here to help."_

* * *

Naruto's arms were crossed in front of his face as he slid backwards, his feet planted in the snow. Ino appeared in front of him, her arms and legs coated in dark brown earth release chakra. With her appendages harder than diamond, she was able to resist Naruto's punches. He was holding back by a lot, but it was alright. She threw a wicked punch that was slapped away, then attacked with an elbow to his chest. Naruto caught the attack, and went to headbutt her. Faster than he could react, pain shot through his forehead. When he looked, he saw that her entire face was the same color as her arms and legs.

Ino spun low, going for a leg sweep. Naruto backflipped away from the other blonde and had to block a punch that would have more than likely hurt more than he would've liked to admit. She grabbed his arm and shifted her weight in the way he'd taught her the week prior to them arriving in the Land of Iron.

Naruto was more than a little surprised when he found himself suddenly weightless. The air in his lungs seemed to flee at once when his back met the snow covered ground with a force he wouldn't have thought possible from the other blonde. In a flash, she was over him with one hand on his throat and the other aiming one of her specially made kunai at his heart. He was proud of her progress; every break they'd taken on three week trip to the snowy country was usually spent training. Sometimes the training was more aggressive, while others were spent working on chakra control. Having mastered the _Earth Spear_ and _Mud Spore_, Naruto thought to teach her two more jutsu and work on her taijutsu.

Ino was breathing heavily, but that was only due to her exertions in the freezing cold. She was currently straddling her blonde's abdomen with her serrated kunai aimed to kill. But she completely at the mercy of the other genin.

The Yamanaka clan heiress couldn't tear her gaze from the blue eyes of the Senju heir. His eyes, whirlpools of liquid cerulean were so hypnotic that they seemed to drag her very consciousness to their azure depths. Ino was drowning, drowning in a pair of eyes that seemed to be an amalgam of several shades of blue and as she continued to fight against the sapphire waves that were dragging her further and further down, she didn't notice face moving closer to Naruto's.

Naruto's breathing had picked up as the other blonde's face moved closer, lips coming dangerously close to his own. He had no problem with it; the past three weeks had been most insightful. He _knew_ her. She _knew_ him.

Fears. Motivations. Aspirations. Inspirations. Likes. Dislikes. Favorite color. Favorite books. Least favorite activity.

They knew the other's answer. Just yesterday rather brazenly claimed Naruto as her own, uncaring of the slack jawed stares of her sensei and teammate.

"_Naruto-kun?"_

_He hummed, letting her know that he was listening despite his attention being on the delicate operation of adding a powered hallucinogenic compound to his smoke bombs. He was on the last one and once he corked the bomb, he looked up, giving the other blonde his full attention._

"_What's up, Ino-chan?"_

_Trying to ignore the fact that her stomach exploded into frenzied butterflies and that her heart began to flutter at the honorific, she looked at him, her dazzling blue eyes holding his in a death grip. Asuma and Choji looked up from the bag of chips and cigarette respectively, curious as to what was about to happen. It was no secret that Ino and Naruto were close and had gotten closer over the course of the mission. Not that Asuma minded, glad that his pupil found a reason grow stronger. The blonde male even helped Choji develop his techniques and grow more confident._

"_You're mine now," she said simply. "Got it?"_

_Naruto tilted his head to the left as he shook his smoke bombs to properly mix the contents. Asuma's jaw instantly went slack, his cigarette falling from his lips. Likewise, Choji dropped his chips. The oldest of the males cursed silently as he had to now fish the last of his cigarettes from his pocket. _

"_Yours how?" he asked innocently, before dawning lit his eyes._

"_My k-koibito." she muttered, then a little louder and with more aggression, she said. "Your my b-boyfriend, damn it."_

"_Hm," Naruto pondered this for a moment, before shrugging. "Okay, Ino-chan."_

_For the briefest of moments, as Ino proceeded to happily snuggle into the side of the other blonde, Asuma wondered if it was truly that easy. Could he just walk up to Kurenai Yūhi, stare her dead in her ruby eyes, and just say 'Hey Kurenai, you're my girlfriend now. Alright?' Granted, regardless of how shy his student was around her fellow blonde, she was quite the bold one. He, on the other hand, was more...conservative. As Naruto pressed his lips to the crown of Ino's head, prompting the girl to snuggle even closer, Asuma came to a single decision._

'_Fuck it.' he nodded, the flames of determination alight in his eyes. 'I'm going for it.'_

They were close, so close. There was no Team Ten. There was no snow, no kunai. Just blue and blonde. And in a move as brave as it was borderline instinctive, their lips brushed against each other with a featherlight touch. At that moment, Ino was at peace with the very world. Her heart was jackhammering against her ribs so hard, she could swear she was going to end up bruised. Naruto deepened the kiss when he felt Ino's hand run through his hair.

Asuma cleared his throat and Ino activated her _Earth Release: Earth Spear_ as a reflex, looking up in surprise. Naruto grabbed the wrist of the hand that held his throat and, taking advantage of her temporary shock, flipped them so that he was on top.

"I win, Ino-chan." he kissed her cheek before rising, helping the other blonde up as he did. "Is it time for us to head out, Asuma-sensei?"

Asuma nodded with a knowing grin. "I wasn't interrupting anything, was I?"

Ino was tempted to take her sensei's life at that moment. _'Damn it, sensei!'_ Bastard knew that he was interrupting something. The blonde girl huffed and took her blonde's hand, stomping her way back to the camp.

The next few hours were spent in a frustrated and contemplative silence. Ino was silently fuming, resisting the ever present urge to spin and drown her sensei in one of the newest earth release jutsu he koibito helped her learn. With a sigh, she glanced at the other blonde who kept his gaze trained forward, his eyes hard. Ino squeezed his hand. When he looked at her, his eyes softened instantly. Her eyes were curious, questioning. Naruto turned his gaze forward again.

"We're not alone." he said.

He turned and caught a blade that was aimed at Ino's shoulder blade, his blue eyes murderous. Visible blue chakra surrounded the blade sharpening it enough to draw blood from the boy's hand. Steam rose from his body as he snapped the sword in half and viciously uppercut the samurai, the man rising ten feet in the air before landing in an unceremonious heap.

Ino threw some of her shuriken at the three samurai that were rushing her, as Choji and Asuma were already dealing with some of their own. The Sarutobi heir clashed blades with the three samurai on him with a seasoned ease.

"Careful," he warned his genin. "Samurai are trained to kill shinobi."

Choji began panicking as he curled up into his Human Boulder technique in an attempt to flatten the enemies targeting him.

"Ino-chan!"

The other blonde ran through hand seals at an alarming speed. "_Earth Release: Mud Spore"_

A river of mud was conjured, powerful enough to wash away the seemingly endless amounts of samurai that were continually coming behind trees and from the distance. Not bothering with the hand seal, she went directly to flowing the earth release chakra around the entire of her body the moment the chakra sabers collided with her chest and stomach. Since the jutsu made her flesh harder than diamond, the blade bounced harmlessly off of her. Acting on pure instinct, she broke the arms and legs of whatever poor bastard entered her range as Naruto was put samurai down that were starting to swarm Asuma and Choji.

"_Boil Release: Skilled Mist."_ When he exhaled, a dense white fog filled the surrounding area, though thankfully, he possessed a degree of control over it. The fog itself began melting the armor of the samurai as well as their chakra enhanced sabers.

Team Ten was standing back to back, each shinobi ready to go down fighting. At least, that was the resolve until a single man with a neatly trimmed moustache and beard made himself known. Unlike the other swordsmen, he didn't wear a helmet or face mask. His very presence, much like Naruto's at the moment, oozed power; power gained from mastery over one's mind as well as one's blade. All other samurai ceased their movements when he arrived.

"Mifune-sama."

"Why are you attacking our guests?" the man asked, the power in his voice belying the age so apparent in his face. "Especially one so honored?"

'Honored?' was the single thought running through the minds of Team Ten, until all eyes went to a beyond pissed off Naruto, his normally blue eyes now a sinister crimson.

"The blonde boy struck first." the warrior closest to Asuma said. "And besides, Mifune-sama, look at those who are members of our order."

In the snow lay samurai, some burned, some crushed, and others broken. A majority was missing their armor and weaponry. Mifune and Naruto shared a look, one that told of the internal war they were having.

"It has been a long time, Naruto-dono." the elder samurai bowed. "I do hope you'll forgive my samurai for attacking you and your party."


	9. Chapter 9

_As Naruto settled into a room and proceeded to treat the numerous samurai that descended on the team with the intent to kill, Ino stayed in the room with him and watched him work. For the most part, the swordsmen were silent. That changed when he started treated one of the warriors that suffered at the hands of his Heavenly Spear Kick. This, of course, resulted in several fractured ribs since the armor (which had been rendered beyond repair) had taken the brunt of the attack. The blonde Senju had to commended the samurai and the craftsmanship of their armor; had the man not been wearing it, he would have suffered a similar fate to Zabuza. _

"_You're lucky you caught me off guard, brat." the other man spat. "Otherwise, I would have decapitated you."_

_Naruto looked at the man and released an obscene amount of killing intent. "Then perhaps I should just slit your throat and be done with it."_

_The man said nothing else, sweating profusely as his eyes began bulging, his pupils dilating in sheer terror._

"_It's very unwise to threaten the one healing you. For all it takes is a little inconsistent chakra control…" as he was explaining, he added some wind chakra to his hands, resulting in a bloody gash on the man's torso. He cried out in pain, but it was quieted to a whimper as the sliced flesh began to mend itself. "And the healing becomes a mauling."_

_For the rest of the procedure, the samurai said nothing but continued to look on at the blonde boy in fear. The blonde genin were silent as well, Ino staring protectively at her boyfriend. He taught her how to fight, how to utilize more than just her clan Secret Techniques. He helped her bring her endurance up to the point where she could more than likely keep up with a chunin. So she knew he was more than capable of taking care of himself. Add the fact that he was literally a walking poison factory, and that just tripled his lethality. Yet, she was waiting on something, anything to happen to him. If it did, she would spring into action and end it without remorse._

_The next few hours saw nothing more than the rest of the warriors, now with minor injuries or concussions, being treated. Ino was glad no one else spoke against her blonde the way that bald man did, otherwise, she would have to interrupt the other genin's delicate healing procedures. When Naruto was finished, he still wanted to go and train a bit. Ino was gobsmacked. She knew her man was a machine when it came to endurance and chakra, but this was ridiculous. To go from all out combat, to nonstop healing, to training was insane. Even for her walking poison factory._

"_Oh no you don't, Whiskers." Ino stood in front of him with her arms crossed. "You're going to take your blonde ass into the room Mifune-dono gave us and you're going to take a nap."_

_Naruto raised a questioning brow, unused to anyone that wasn't his mother or sister talking to him in such a manner. "Oh? And if I don't?"_

_Her Earth Spear activated instinctively. The message was clear;'Then I'll make you.' The Yamanaka heiress had gotten scary with that jutsu, and Naruto couldn't have been prouder. He smiled and took her darkened hand. The jutsu receded immediately and her face was dusted with a soft blush. The look of stubborn happiness was short lived, however, as a girl with red hair gasped as she saw the other blonde. Ino saw the girl start sprinting, the sword at her waist wobbling in place. She was suddenly all over Naruto, nuzzling him and cooing at him, despite his apparent confusion._

_Ino was instantly pissed. Who the fuck was this redhead slut that dared to put those dirty hands on her man? After what felt like ages, but was really just a minute and a half, the other girl realized that she and her hero weren't alone. She regarded Ino with the same confusion that Naruto gave her._

"_I'm sorry," his brow furrowed as he held Ino's hand tighter as he stepped away from the strange swordswoman. "Do I know you?"_

_The redhead pouted. "That's mean, Naruto-sama. You saved my mother's life four years ago, and I would remember those exotic whiskers anywhere."_

_Recognition lit his azure eyes. "Akiko? Wow, you've really grown up."_

_Ino was at a loss and remained that way even when Naruto explained that he saved Mifune-dono's sister-in-law when she was on the brink of death; a feat that was only possible because his mother and sister were operating right beside him. He was in charge of the operation, sure, but he deferred to them often. He knew how he would feel if either of them were taken from him, so he would be damned if he let someone else lose their mother._

_The rest of their short stay found Ino burning with rage, her very skin almost as hot as Naruto's when he utilized his kekkei genkai. The slut, er, Akiko as she was apparently named, kept brushing against and bumping into Naruto in coy, flirty ways. Naruto didn't seem to notice, too busy making sure that Ino was properly cared for in a foreign place. It warmed her heart to see her ignore her advances, but the way she kept regarding him as 'Naruto-sama' was grating against her patience. The redhead caressed his name like lover, tasting it provocatively with her slutty tongue. Ino caught the way she would purr at him and try to press herself against him, and it was taking every ounce of willpower that she possessed not to put the floozy in the ground. That was, of course, before they were about to leave and the homewrecker tried one last attempt to steal her blonde away._

_The samurai prepared an apologetic feast, one that had Choji drooling and Asuma gaping. Mifune was trying to ensure the friendship of the Senju heir, as he and his family saved someone very close to him. Losing their friendship over a misunderstanding would be tantamount to killing his sister-in-law with his own blade. The redhead walked up to Naruto, gazing up at him with those smouldering grey eyes. Ino instantly knew that she was not going to like what the girl was going to say next. She didn't._

"_Shall I run you a bath before the feast, Naruto-sama? Would you prefer the feast first?"She paused for effect and Ino, in that one moment, was prepared to launch Konohagakure into a full scale war. "Or would you like me?"_

_Grabbing her blonde, her sensei, and chubby teammate, Ino made her way out of the temple they rested in and started the journey back to Konoha in an irate silence. Needless to say, the trip back home was extremely awkward for the other two males on the team._

* * *

Ino was pissed just thinking about the mission that happened two months prior. She was preparing to deliver a bouquet of flowers to the sensei of Team Eight from her own sensei, and though she was still livid at the thought of that homewrecking slut, she was rather impressed with her own handiwork. She was also impressed that she didn't make a trip back to the Land of Iron specifically to bury the girl.

Though that situation, no matter how awful for Ino to recall, had nothing on the current one that was happening right in front of her eyes.

* * *

_The moment they returned, Ino still hadn't recovered from her irritation. With the most innocent gaze she could muster, she turned to her blonde and smiled._

"_Welcome home, Naruto-sama."_

_The look on his face was thunderous, though she knew he wouldn't do anything to harm her. "Ino-chan. If you call me that again, I'll choke you."_

_Ino would never admit to how moist that made her. She wasn't that kind of girl, but there was something about the low, rumbling warning in his voice that made it seem so...hot. Instead, she mewled as she pressed herself provocatively against his body._

"_You promise?" she purred._

_Choji choked on some of his chips and Asuma's cigarette fell out of his mouth, though the look in the bearded jōnin's eyes said that he was taking notes for his own romantic endeavours. He dismissed them and Naruto pulled the other blonde into a hug and teleported them away. When she felt them stop moving, Naruto released his hold on her. Afraid that she pushed him too far, she rushed back into his warm embrace._

"_What's wrong, Ino-chan?"_

_She looked up into his eyes, searching for any sign that he was upset. "I don't like her."_

_He chuckled, before gently brushing a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "She can be a bit much… okay, she can be a lot much, but I'm still proud of the way you handled it."_

"_I ended up dragging you and Choji and sensei through the snow."_

_He nodded. "But you still trusted me to ignore her."_

_If he had any idea as to how close Ino came to ending the redhead's life, he didn't make it known. Once again, he relinquished his hold on her and she allowed him to. When she looked around, she saw that they were on Training Ground Seven. As she continued to scan the immediate area, she saw one of the two faces she could have gone years without seeing._

"_Naruto?" Sakura Haruno made herself known, no doubt having been spying on their personal moment. "Can I talk to you, please?"_

_Planting a kiss on Ino's forehead that immediately quelled the rage starting to bubble in her chest, he nodded. "Sure, what's up?"_

"_Alone. If you don't mind."_

_Ino snapped. "Whatever you want to ask him, you can ask in front of me, Forehead."_

_Naruto nudged her temple with his nose. "Be nice, Ino-chan. But anyways, what can I help with?"_

"_I...I, uh, wanted to see if that offer for training was still open." she muttered, though it was clear by the light in her eyes that her resolve was steeling. "I'm tired of being afraid, and I want to get stronger. Can you please train with me?"_

* * *

Ino, having delivered the bouquet to the red-eyed jōnin while lost in memories, found herself traveling to Training Ground Seven. Despite the extensive training he was giving Sakura, Naruto always made time for her; taking her out on dates, just spending time with her, bringing her lunch to the Flower Shop, training with her, and continuing their poison lessons. The lesson they had the week prior was an in-depth overview on hemotoxins that somehow ended up with them in a heated make-out session that was almost caught by Shizune. Luckily, the two heard the jōnin-level medic and separated just in time. Shizune, however, thoroughly interrogated her precious little brother when the other blonde left later that day.

The blonde genin blushed at the memory as she made her way onto Training Ground Seven, her face heating dangerously, and as she saw how close the pinkette was sitting next to her man, Ino felt a righteous fury ignite in her stomach. She looked to the left to see him with three academy age students with his poison supplies, a textbook, and three sets of thick gloves. The kids looked as though they were devout followers in a faith, listening to the words of their living god. Confused, she looked above her blonde and the forehead-girl to see Naruto reading _A Master's Guide to Poison, vol. 1_. Ino had to wonder if her lovable poison factory read anything other than medical textbooks and poisoner's texts.

The blonde in the tree looked up to find Ino coming closer. When he smiled, it was so bright that Ino felt as though her heart would stop at any moment. The other versions of Naruto looked up at her, winked and smiled respectively, and went back to their various tasks. Jumping out of the tree, he landed in front of Ino and pressed a sweet kiss to her unsuspecting lips. This pulled a quiet moan from the blonde girl, though it was unfortunately loud enough to pull the attention of Sakura and the academy students. The Yamanaka heiress blushed in embarrassment as the three kids walked up to her. She could swear that the girl of the trio was glaring murderously at her.

"Hey boss," started the boy with the ridiculously long blue scarf in a teasing manner. "Is that your girlfriend?"

Naruto nodded with another bright smile. "Ino-chan, this is Konohamaru, Udon, and Moegi. My little minions."

Udon, the kid who looked in desperate need for a tissue for his nose, smiled at the genin. Konohamaru scrutinized the blonde girl with a careful eye, a watchful little brother making sure that his 'Boss' was good. Moegi, the girl with rather odd twin tails as a hair style, continued to glare silently at Ino, a look that the older girl returned two-fold.

"Moegi-chan, be nice." the blonde boy warned.

The orange haired girl to him with a look that Ino found almost eerily familiar...hauntingly familiar. When she looked over at Sakura, she could see that Sakura was giving his clone the same look as they discussed medical and combat applications of jutsu _Medical Water Release: Jellyfish_. Sure, she was actively participating in the discussion, but she was eyeing him in a manner that was becoming more familiar the more she looked at it.

The academy trio, known as the Konohamaru Corps, went back to the waiting blonde clone with the poison supplies. They jumped back into the lesson immediately and listened as though he were their actual teacher and not a fresh out of the academy genin himself. Though, to be fair to her koibito, there was nothing 'fresh out of the academy' about him with the exception of rank.

After sneaking another kiss, one that Sakura shot a hateful look towards, the couple sat and he whipped out an earth release scroll that was titled '_Swamp of the Underworld'_. Her eyes lit up with excitement as she and Naruto immediately went into the theory of the technique, before they started practicing.

After some time passed, Sasuke and Kakashi made their way onto the field. When they saw three copies of Naruto in the middle of various lessons, they didn't know what to think. By this point, Sakura was practicing some basic kenjutsu kata with dark bladed tanto, Ino was having a taijutsu spar while looking as though she was wearing a dark full body suit, while the three academy kids (one of whom Kakashi recognized as the Sandaime's grandson) were crafting smoke bombs with a dash of jet black powder.

Sasuke, who'd just finished some personalized training with Kakashi, looked over at his two teammates with a mixture of stunned surprise and something close to pride. At least now, no one would hold him back from his ultimate ambition. As Ino's skin tone returned to her normal color, that was with her Naruto vanished, as did the one with Sakura. Both kunoichi sank to the ground, sweaty and panting. He moved closer to the blonde kunoichi.

Kakashi had noticed a drastic change in his cute little pink haired genin while Naruto was gone, and a change that was still more drastic when he returned. For the past two months, she started developing toned muscles. She became faster, stronger, more able to think in the middle of several stimuli appearing at once. It was beautiful to see, but as the sensei to Team Seven, he was a tad depressed that he couldn't claim to have anything to do with it.

"Hey Ino-chan," Sasuke started, ignoring the look of utter disgust in her pretty blue eyes. "What do you say we go out some time? Maybe some lunch or some shopping?"

The Yamanaka heiress moved closer, her hard eyes squinting as she thoroughly examined either of his cheeks, then his forehead. She looked up to his hair, then turned her gaze to his outfit.

"No whiskers, no Senju seal on your forehead, no spiky blonde hair, no haori with 'Five' on it." she noted as Sakura tried her damnedest to not laugh at the stunned look on the Uchiha's face. "You're not my koibito. So why are you asking me out, Uchiha?"

Even Kakashi was gobsmacked, though his mask hid his expression well. It was no secret that Sakura and Ino were the biggest members of Sasuke's fan club back in the academy. Yet now…

"You can't possibly be serious about that blonde reject." he scoffed.

Kakashi noticed Sakura draw her tanto and the little girl whip out a kunai, no doubt given to her by his blonde genin. It was a strange sight, seeing Sakura ready to cut her former crush in order to protect her teammate from being insulted in his absence.

"You know what, Uchiha." Ino started, her right hand becoming that same dark color it was while was sparring with Naruto. "If you can tell me the chemical compound of a neurotoxin and how it relates to a hemotoxin, then I'll go out with you."

The last of the Uchiha looked to Kakashi for help, but the jōnin wasn't of any use in anyway when it came to toxins. Sakura's eyes lit up like she knew the answer, but stayed in her place. The three academy students giggled, discussing the answer amongst themselves, while the remaining Naruto clone looked both proud and highly amused. He felt like a proud father as he looked to the Konohamaru Corps, and decided that he rather liked that feeling. It was funny since he didn't know the chemical composition of a neurotoxin either, at least, not until the Demon Brothers. Though he did know the composition of hemotoxin. Ino did, indeed, have a beautiful mind.

"Well?" she tapped her foot impatiently. "I'm waiting."

Stumped, he left the training field absently with his brow furrowed in concentration, muttering to himself about chemical compositions, hemotoxin, and neurotoxin. He'd heard of neurotoxins before. Hell, who hadn't? But it was the hemotoxin that was throwing him for a loop. Sasuke, a genius in his own right, had no clue what the kunoichi was talking about. He knew that 'hemo-' meant blood and toxin was a poison. Perhaps the Uchiha archives had something on it. In truth, he'd been counting on her obsessive crush on him. Her devotion belonged solely to the Senju now. Maybe he could try for Sakura instead of wasting valuable training time searching for an answer. She'd finally become worthy of an effort on his behalf when she took his advice and started training seriously.

Kakashi was staring in the direction that Sasuke went, glad that he already told him about his announcement. Soon enough, Naruto returned carrying two bottles of water, each going to one of the kunoichi. Sakura and Ino gulped the water down, but Ino picked up and checked her watch.

"I have to go, Naruto-kun." she panted. "Asuma-sensei said he had to talk to us. I'll drop by the compound later."

She pressed a light kiss to his lips and left, bidding Kakashi a good day. Both Moegi and Sakura looked as though they'd swallowed something bitter. The clone overseeing the Academy trio packed up the supplies and sealed it into a scroll before throwing it to the original and dispelling. The Konohamaru Corps ran up to Naruto and hugged him before leaving. Sakura, having sheathed her blade before she received her water from the blonde stood next to him with an obvious blush on her face, though his attention was on their sensei.

"Well then, my cute little genin, I hope you're not too tired for a couple of D-ranked missions."

Blonde and pinkette swapped a look of disgust before turning back to Kakashi. The blonde of the pair was the one to speak.

"Do you have anything more...exciting?"

The older man eye-smiled, pulling out two sheets of paper. "I was hoping you'd ask. It's time for the Chunin Exams, and I nominated Team Seven."


	10. Chapter 10

Naruto, heir to the Senju clan, was highly annoyed as he found himself to be the focal point of the hungry gazes of the council.

The damn Chūnin Exams were tomorrow and he was originally planning to spend time with his girlfriend and his best friend in order to ensure that the three of them were properly prepared for the test. Instead, as he was headed over to Ichiraku Ramen to meet Sakura so they could go to Ino's house together, a purple haired kunoichi stopped him. Bowing to him in the middle of the street, much to the surprise of the onlookers, she asked him to help her lover; begged him to, point of fact. When he asked how he could help when there was an entire hospital of well-trained medics and doctors, she explained how he was poisoned and they needed an expert. This, of course, led her straight to him. He cursed internally.

As he accepted and prepared to give her instructions, an Anbu wearing an orange accented bird mask seemingly appeared out of thin air. With a feminine voice, he was instructed to report before the council on the orders of the Sandaime Hokage. He conjured two shadow clones; one to explain the situation to Ino, and the other to provide Sakura with instructions and an explanation. He told the kunoichi to follow the clone and made his way to the Hokage's Mansion, clearly irritated. As he entered the room he noticed three long tables that formed a sort of incomplete square.

To his left were the clan heads; Tsume of the Inuzuka, Inoichi for the Yamanaka, Shibi for the Aburame, Chōza for the Akimichi, Shikaku for the Nara, and his mother for Senju. She gave him a gentle smile, which was quickly reciprocated. She conversed with Tsume, but the feral looking woman kept her gaze trained on the heir standing before them. Inochi watched the boy intently, already knowing what this meeting was going to be about. Shikaku looked to be a strange combination of bored and tired, while Chōza quietly munched on some snacks.

To Naruto's right were the civilians in charge of various sources of income in Konoha. The females on the council eyed him lustfully, hungrily. He could tell they want him, or perhaps something from him. Something that would more than likely end with him snapping their necks. He scoffed and released a bit of killing intent, but stopped when the Hokage entered the room. With a grandfatherly smile, he took his seat in the center of the middle table that housed the Honored and Esteemed Elders of the village. They too were eyeing him expectantly. He swore to Kami that if someone said something out of line, they were getting a prepared shot of poison senbon to the throat faster than they could think about...whatever the hell was going in their more than likely empty heads.

"Good afternoon, Naruto-kun." said the Sandaime with a kind smile. "How are you today?"

"If you want me to be honest, I'm more than a little annoyed. I was going to prep for the exams tomorrow, but now I have an operation to perform after I leave here." he admitted. "What did you need, Old Man?"

Tsunade sat up at once when she heard him say that he had an operation. One of the elders glared at the boy, a man that wore glasses with white hair and a white beard. Before he could say anything, however, the Sandaime chuckled as though the blonde had told a rather entertaining joke. The civilians and the elders looked at him as though he'd gone mad. Tsume, meanwhile, was impressed at the kid; it took major balls to walk in front of the council and call the Hokage 'Old Man'. The Hokage...literally the most powerful man in the village? Regarded as both 'The Professor' and the 'God of Shinobi.' Yeah, the blonde she'd been unable to take her eyes off of had balls of steel.

"I see. Then I won't keep you long, Naruto-kun." he grinned after he finished his fit of chuckles. "The first point of this meeting is actually in regards to the Chūnin Exams. You see, Naruto-kun, whenever you've been on missions, the reports come back detailing your skill, both in combat and in the healing arts. A while ago, I received a letter from a woman named Tsunami, detailing the aid you gave to the Land of Wave, a majority of which detailed your work in their hospital. Adding this to the work you do within the village makes you eligible for a field promotion. In terms of combat, you can be made a Chūnin, a very high ranking one. From what I've read and heard, you usually finish fights before skill can be evaluated and taken into account. In terms of Medical Ninjutsu, you are eligible to receive the rank of Tokubetsu Jōnin."

Tsunade's eyes went wide. Tears blurred her vision and pride swelled thickly in her chest. Inoichi was extremely pleased. As the young man his beloved dandelion was dating, he couldn't have been happier. Tsume was surprised, but she had to wonder why she seemed so...attracted to him? Magnetized? Who really knew, but he had an air about him. A powerful one. So needless to say, she was impressed with the 'mini-Tsunade'.

"I assume I can't do both?"

All eyes went to him, regarding him with looks of incredulity. Here was the Sandaime Hokage offering the boy the position of high ranking Chūnin or Tokubetsu Jōnin, and he still wanted to take the damn Chūnin Exams? Most people present, save perhaps four in attendance, thought the boy a strange combination of brave, arrogant, and foolish.

Brave? Most definitely. If he were to be called 'arrogant' or 'foolish', however, he would alert the insulting party to his status as a Senju. Not an Uchiha.

"You can, but why would you?" the Sarutobi clan head asked, genuinely confused.

Naruto shrugged. "What better time to show off, I suppose. Besides, I've been training one of my teammates and a member of Team Ten. I'm highly interested in seeing how far they've truly progressed."

"Ah yes." Hiruzen breathed. "If I remember correctly, it is Ms. Ino Yamanaka and Ms. Sakura Haruno."

A blonde woman on the civilian side sat up straighter, her eyes trained on the boy with the intensity of any shinobi. At once, Naruto could tell that she has either had training, or was a shinobi at one point in her life. Her scrutiny didn't last long, however, as she narrowed her gaze at him.

"You are the one responsible for training my daughter?" she asked, her voice laced with a hard edge.

Naruto nodded, fearless. To his left, Tsunade tensed up, ready to bury the mother on the other side of the room if she needed to. The blonde woman stood and went to him, standing menacingly before the genin. Tsume had a firm hold on Tsunade's shoulder as she too tried to rise in defense of her baby boy, her own eyes narrowing at the standing blonde mother. The woman, Mebuki Haruno, sank to her knees and bowed reverently before the Senju heir. This alone shocked the entirety of the council. Her palms were pressed to the floor and her forehead rested on the backs of her hands. Naruto got on one knee as the woman sobbed, repeating 'Thank you' as though it were a mantra designed to help her maintain her very sanity.

As a retired kunoichi, Mebuki had always tried to break her daughter out of the fantasy that her precious 'Sasuke-kun' would pull her out of whatever mess she was in. She tried in a myriad of different ways, but her warnings and teachings fell upon deaf ears. Her daughter's blind and obsessive devotion was quickly consuming her. But something happened to her daughter during her first C-ranked mission, something that she refused to talk about. The past two months had seen a profound change in her daughter. One that made Mebuki sing praise to Kami above, and pray that she would meet the one responsible. Even if it was that damn Uchiha.

Naruto helped his fellow blonde up and hugged her; not that he had much of a choice since the crying mother latched on to him. After a solid five minutes, she composed herself and returned to her seat. They would talk later.

Hiruzen cleared his throat, touched. "Well, I think I speak for the council when I say I look forward to the three of you performing in the exams. It is the two young ladies that you are usually never seen without, however, that bring about the second purpose of this meeting."

The man next to him, scarred and heavily bandaged with an air of deceit, was the one to speak up. "As the heir to one of the founding clans of Konohagakure, you will be placed under the CRA."

"CRA?" Naruto asked, searching his memory before recognition near instantly lit his eyes. "Clan Restoration Act?"

Tsunade's head snapped in the direction of her sensei, her eyes hard and incredulous. Tsume found herself slightly relieved as well as excited. It was imperative that she discovered why the hell she couldn't seem to take her eyes off of the young man that stood stunned before the council. Mebuki seemed excited, plans already hatching in her head. Inoichi's eyes darkened much like Tsunade, and just like the suddenly angry blonde mother, stared at his Kage as though he were mad. No doubt this would hurt his baby girl.

But to everyone's surprise, Naruto let loose a string of foul curses and threats to the bandaged man. It went on for a few minutes and everyone had differing reactions; Tsume was trying her damnedest not to burst out into a round of raucous laughter, but it was getting harder with each word the ballsy blonde spoke. Mebuki blushed at some of the imagery the boy her daughter held above most other used and wondered where he learned such language. Tsunade looked oddly proud of her legacy, smiling and clutching her face in silent laughter. Inoichi, the elders, the civilian council and the rest of the clan heads were gobsmacked at the audacity of this boy. Even Hiruzen had to tip his hat down to hide the fact that he too would soon succumb to laughter.

"And then you can fold up whatever pathetic sack you have dangling between your legs, cut the fucker off, and mail back to a motherfucker and get a refund, because the shit clearly lacks the goods its supposed to fucking come with." he finished raging.

Danzo was, in a word, surprised. The boy cleared took after his mother, who (with Tsume Inuzuka) was currently cackling madly at the boy's verbal rampage. He sighed before he pulled out his trump card; intent on getting the blood of the Senju within his ranks. The weapon had gone missing years ago and he felt it his duty to fortify the militaristic might of Konoha.

"It's either you or your mother."

All sound stopped as Tsunade stood, enraged. "Fu-"

"Fine," Naruto snarled, all eyes once more going towards him. "My Kaa-san is still mourning. I'll do it, Danzo. Not for your twisted ambition or Konoha, but for my mother to be left in peace."

'_Twisted ambition?'_ Hiruzen thought looking at the satisfied smirk poorly hidden on his former sibling-student's face. "Very good. The council will have-"

"I will choose my brides." Naruto snapped, and before Danzo started again, he said. "You are not the Hokage. Deal with it."

"Very well," Hiruzen smiled, trying to alleviate the tension that appeared so suddenly in the room. "You are dismissed, Naruto-kun. I wish you a successful operation and look forward to seeing you in action during the Chūnin Exams."

He turned to leave but looked over his shoulder at the scarred man. "The roots of the tree hidden in the shadows will wither and die before you. The Senju see all."

* * *

"The Clan Restoration Act?" Ino was shocked, missing the smile that touched Sakura's lips. "D-Does that me we-"

"No." Naruto said with an air of finality. "You really think I would let you go so easily?"

The trio were silent as they sat in Ino's bedroom, preparing for the exams. Sakura was tainting (or enhancing, as Naruto called it) her black bladed tanto with a hemotoxin of Naruto's design, using a thick paintbrush to spread the poison deliberately across the length of the blade. Ino polished the set of weapons her koibito gifted her, neatly setting them in her kunai and weapon pouch respectively. Naruto was distractedly enhancing his senbon and kunai, while sharpening the tools that weren't soaking.

Sakura and Ino exchanged looks before looking at the whiskered genin. Ino walked over to him and gently took the tools away from him before sitting on his lap. Gingerly, she lifted his face to see the eyes that she loved so much. Planting a playful kiss to her koibito's nose, she nuzzled his neck and just breathing in his scent; that subtle scent of jasmine that was somehow undetectable when he didn't want to be found. Ino could feel her best friend's jealous gaze burning into her.

"What else did you guys discuss in the meeting?" the pinkette asked, more to distract herself from the burning in her chest than anything.

Naruto's eyes went to the ceiling for a moment before he remembered. "Oh! Yeah, actually. The Old Man wanted to give me a field promotion. High ranking Chūnin for my combat ability and Tokubetsu Jōnin for my medical skills."

Both girls were stunned silent. Sharing a look, their eyes wide, neither could form words to actually convey the thoughts echoing wildly in their minds. Naruto looked thoughtful for a moment.

"I think I could have become a full fledged Jōnin if I didn't end my fights so fast. According to Ji-chan, I end my fights before my skills could be evaluated. Which is true enough, I suppose. The only fight that was drawn out was the first fight with Zabuza and that wasn't even my best form."

"W-W-Why didn't you accept the promotion?" Ino asked, shaking him violently.

"My best friend and my girlfriend are taking the exams. As your trainer, I want to see how well you both have progressed and to take it with you. Besides, Team Seven wouldn't be Team Seven without a blonde poisonous healer. It's kind of my niche."

Sakura was still stunned silent, gazing at her crush with a look of longing and purest admiration in her eyes. Ino shook her head, laughing at his reasons.

"You're such a dork, Whiskers."

Naruto scoffed goodnaturedly. "Indeed. How about I get us some dinner? I'm starving."

Sakura stay unmoving as the blonde male took his leave. Ino stared at the pinkette. She was glad that Naruto made them make up and restore their friendship. It was good to have her best friend back, and even though she was certain they once again had the hots for the same man, the Forehead-Girl maintained a respectful distance. Even though she was a little down about them forcing the CRA on her lovable poison factory, she didn't miss the look of hopeful excitement dawning in Sakura's viridescent eyes. She sighed and flicked the other girl in her forehead.

"He's gone to us food, Forehead." Ino rolled her eyes. "You can stop drooling now."

Sakura glared at the girl. "Whatever Ino-pig. In any case, you seem like you're surprisingly okay with this whole mess."

"I'm not." Ino sighed. "But I... I love Naruto, even though I haven't told him yet. So I'll do my best to support him no matter what.

Sakura paused, her mind racing at the possibilities about what she was about to propose. In truth, in any other scenario differing from the one the trio was suddenly thrust in. Only in their world would this idea even have any kind of merit. The only reason she didn't try to propose this earlier was due to the obvious bloodlust the other kunoichi carried in regards to anyone eyeballing her man in any manner that wasn't purely platonic.

"Hey Pig…"

Ino looked to the green-eyed girl, ready for her to shoot her shot in regards to join her koi's now mandatory harem. The thought of having to share him with Kami knows how many other girls was enough to make her sick. But it was either that, or they would force suitors on his mother. She knew him well enough to know that he had his hands effectively tied. Ino could guess that it would have been the same outcome if they even hinted at putting his sister under the CRA. He was so protective of his family, and she loved it. Honestly, she was surprised that he wasn't arrested for murdering a village elder.

"Let's make a deal," she said, her resolved like stone. "If we fight and I win, I join Naruto-kun's little...harem."

The both shivered. "And if we don't fight in the exams?"

"Then we'll fight under watch of a sensei and settle it that way." Sakura said.

Ino shrugged, feeling as though she had nothing to really lose. "If you win and we somehow agree to a threesome, which I won't unless I'm absolutely blackout drunk, don't expect me to each you out, Forehead."

* * *

"Welcome to Training Ground Forty-Four, gakis." said the proctor of the second portion of the Chūnin Exams, Anko Mitarashi. "Or as I like to call it, The Forest of Death."

Naruto's mind went to the first part of the exams, where a man named Ibiki Morino was the proctor for a written test. The written portion was to test their ability to gather information without being seen. Those with dojutsu or clan jutsu, like Sasuke, the Hyuga pair, or Shikamaru utilized it. Those with creativity, like Tenten used it. Those that knew the material via studying, such as Naruto and Sakura, answered the test questions thusly. Before that, however, the blonde had an encounter with a trio of genin from Sunagakure.

After an accident where Konohamaru bumped into the one in a black suit with something wrapped on his back, two of the trio feared Naruto; their previous 'Those Konoha tree-huggers ain't shit' mentality being thoroughly rearranged when Naruto broke the wrist of the boy named Kankuro and was preparing to slash the throat of the girl named Temari. The kunoichi trembled, unaware that any genin could move that fast. Clearly, she never met the youngest of the blonde Senju. It wasn't until the youngest of the group appeared, a redhead with the kanji for 'love' carved into his head. His eyes were dead, drowning in loneliness and anger. His threat, no; his promise still rang clearly in the blonde's mind.

'_Shut up, Kankuro.' he said._ '_Or I'll kill you.'_

The bloodlust rolling off of him was obscene, matched only by the killing intent that Naruto released to keep his pinkette teammate at ease. The other two Suna genin, however, looked as though they were experiencing a living nightmare. The fear they had for the red haired boy was palpable. The fear they now had for Naruto was thick enough that it could be sliced with a kunai.

'_What is your name?' he asked the Senju heir, his eyes questing, searching for what could only be described as a worthy sacrifice._

_Naruto folded his arms, unafraid of the boy unlike those they were both surrounded by. 'Visitors first.'_

'_I am known as Sabaku no Gaara.' he said, his voice an eerie monotone._

'_Senju, Naruto.' the blonde answered. 'Five.'_

_The redhead's eyes widened for the briefest of times as he said, 'One. Mother is looking forward to tasting your blood, Senju.'_

_A wild, feral look appeared in Naruto's eyes as they changed from azure to crimson. 'And I'm looking forward to spilling yours.'_

* * *

A kunai sliced through his cheek as Naruto was rather forcefully returned to the present. Teasing arms wrapped around his shoulder in a playful manner as a tongue lightly licked the blood that dripped haltingly.

"I hate being ignored, blondie-kun." a sweet, near seductive voice whispered in his ear.

Naruto held up a bloodied finger and tasted the crimson fluid that coated his digit, his voice low and husky. "Shame, Proctor-chan. I would've liked to taste more of you."

Anko paused, a chill racing up her spine as a shallow cut open on her cheek. He didn't move. She didn't see him move. No genin could move that fast. She released her hold on Naruto and caught the kunai that flew at them. A genin with a ridiculously long tongue, apparently from Kusagakure, had returned the weapon with the force used to throw it.

The Tokubetsu Jōnin was put on edge, but continued to explain the rules of the second portion of the exam, which basically boiled down to secure the two scrolls, make it to the tower in the heart of Training Ground Forty-Four in five days, and survive. As Anko was passing out waivers for the genin to sign, Ino walked over to her boyfriend, slightly annoyed at the flirty proctor and the fact that Sakura pressed a bit closer.

"Are you okay, Whiskers?" she asked, but suddenly felt a tiny bit ridiculous as she noticed the cut had long since healed. Even as a shinobi that specializes in medical ninjutsu, her boyfriend's ability to heal off any damage he may take in a matter of seconds was freakish.

He grinned and caressed her cheek before taking the stack of waivers and passing them up. "I'm perfect, Ino-chan. Just do your best. Both of you."

Sakura nodded with determination blazing in her eyes. Ino flipped her ponytail as though to say '_You expected any different?'_ He pulled Ino into a tight hug and brushed his lips sensually against hers, then pulled Sakura into a nice hug.

"Don't get hurt, but don't show them what you're made of just yet." he told Ino, then to Sakura, he said. "I'll have your back. Sasuke should be sufficiently skilled enough to keep up."

The Uchiha snorted his derision, but said nothing. As the de facto leader of Team Seven, it went without saying that following his lead would be the wisest option… in most cases anyway. At one point during Sakura's two-month training period, when Sasuke had pointed out that he was better than the Senju heir in every way imaginable, Sakura brought up a very valid point.

'_Did you snap Zabuza's spine with a single kick?'_

The gates opened and the genin raced into the forest, Ino pressing another light kiss to her koibito's lips before taking off with Team Ten.

Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke raced through the trees in silence. Conjuring several shadow clones, the whiskered genin sent them off to scout in several different directions. Sasuke's Sharingan was blazing, looking for any chakra signatures while he occasionally scanned his teammates in order to see if there were any disruptions in their flow of chakra. After an hour or two, Naruto cursed his decision to thoroughly hydrate prior to this current point. Team Seven landed quietly on the ground.

"Sorry," he said, blushing in embarrassment. "I kind of can't hold it."

"Naruto!" Sakura hissed in a manner that showed that she was clearly embarrassed mention the blonde's private business, a faint blush coloring her cheeks as she both had impure thoughts and tried desperately not to include the affectionate '-kun' to his name. "Just hurry up."

He raced away; close enough to rush back in case there was any need,but far away enough that his teammates wouldn't just happen upon his nudity. Ino had violated his shadow clones enough, and with the looks he'd been getting from Sakura as of late, he was not looking for a repeat; lest he happen upon the wrath of his blonde lover.

As Naruto finished relieving his bladder, he adjusted his clothes and turned around. His gaze traveled upwards as he had a single thought before his world went black.

'_That's a big ass snake.'_


	11. Chapter 11

Tsunade was seething, pacing back and forth in front of her sensei's desk. It was taking a monumental amount of self control to not break something, or someone. Self control that she didn't possess. The buxom medic had been ranting for a sum total of thirty minutes, but for the first time in living memory, Hiruzen Sarutobi lost his patience. Killing intent that would have made a Bijuu flinch flooded his office. Even Tsunade wasn't immune, and the effects were instant. Falling into a seat, the blonde woman wheezed as she found it getting harder and harder to breath.

"If you are quite finished, Tsunade-chan." said Hiruzen, his voice hard. "Now then, let us assume you came into my office and bid me good afternoon. Let us also assume that you know the Eye Mind Reading technique and utilized it during the meeting with the council yesterday morning."

Tsunade blinked, but was so shaken she kept her mouth closed. '_The fuck is an Eye Mind Reading?'_

"Now that we have all of that out of the way, let us review the plan for Naruto-kun in regards to the CRA. While utilizing the Eye Mind Reading jutsu, you should have seen the fact you will be named Godaime Hokage after the exams conclude. You would have also seen the reason for this, however, let us assume that you don't fully understand the inner machinations of my mind."

The Sandaime, one of the kindest people the blonde had ever met, was noticeably angry as he took a long, therapeutic drag of his pipe. "Now, in my attempt to solve problems peacefully, the village, namely the elders and the council have been given too much power. So much so, that my hands were virtually tied. There was nothing I could do against them. However, this is a shinobi village. It is a dictatorship, not a democracy. The Hokage holds the ultimate power and the last say. The purpose of the council to add other perspectives when dealing with an issue."

He took a breath, his words soft though his eyes remained alit with the flames of anger. "Even the juinjutsu utilized by the Main Branch of the Hyūga clan can be erased or applied to the should the Kage demand it. However, as I said. I have allowed too much of my power to shared amongst those on my council. You, Tsunade-chan, will take it back as my successor. That is the reason I remained silent while Danzo spoke of the Clan Restoration Act. I will say, however, that Naruto-kun's vocabulary is rather impressive, if not volatile. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, is there anything else you need to say?"

"No, sensei." said Tsunade quietly. Her mind was racing at everything he'd said.

She would become Hokage? She would take back the power the position came with? To say Tsunade needed a drink at that moment would have been an understatement.

* * *

"Where the hell is that blonde idiot?" Sasuke grumbled impatiently.

In this battle royale-esque portion of the exams, to remain stationary was to accept death. Though in Sasuke's mind, neither death nor defeat were acceptable. His greatest ambition, to restore the honor of his fallen clan, demanded that he be perfect in everything he put his effort into. It was why Kakashi was training him. Now that he'd unlocked his clan's kekkei genkai, Kakashi had put a greater effort into developing his latent talents. The Uchiha didn't know why, though. Perhaps it had something to do with the man's own Sharingan. The simple fact that he even had one meant that he was either close to an Uchiha and received it as a gift, or he killed an Uchiha and managed to retrieve only one of their coveted eyes. With their mysterious sensei, one could only guess.

"Sorry I took so long." Naruto fell from above, landing in between the pinkette and the ravenette. "Didn't know I was holding that much back."

Sakura looked at the blonde and subtly inhaled his scent as she moved closer. A while back, during some rather intense taijutsu training, Naruto pinned her. She could tell he was holding back, way back. It bothered her to distraction but when she remembered that he literally broke a jonin-level Missing-Nin's spine with a kick, she was grateful. It was in that moment, that one moment she was beneath him, that she caught a whiff of his scent. It was extremely subtle, yet highly intoxicating. He smelled ever so faintly of jasmine and something else that she couldn't place her finger one. Not until she went to the flower shop afterwards to see Ino. It was honeydew.

Neither of those scents caressed her olfactory sense as moved closer still to the blonde. She looked to his outfit, his very appearance. Had she not know there was supposed to be 'Five' on the back of his haori, or that he carried such an intoxicating and dainty fragrance, she would have believed that this fuck was her crush. Though, it was possible that he removed his scent and changed his haori (as unlikely as it was). So she had an idea.

"Hey Naruto," just calling the probable imposter his name made her stomach churn. "I ran out of the cytotoxin you gave me. Can I have another vial?"

The blonde turned to her, his gaze blank and confused. "Cy-what?"

It happened quickly, too quickly for Sasuke to follow without his Sharingan. The only thing he saw that denoted a difference was the fact that Sakura was in the process of completing the sheathing of her tanto. When he looked to the blonde, he noticed a red line appear on his throat. The other boy's face was immortalized in shock; his mouth slack, his eyes showing a hollowness as the flames of life were snuffed out. Blood seeped from the red line before his legs gave out. When he hit the floor, his head rolled to Sasuke's feet. Anyone that said the Uchiha was shocked would have been right on the market.

Strangely enough, as the head came to a stop, the whisker marks faded as the sun-kissed tone of his flesh turned paper white. His hair turned blue and his eyes, forever open and sightless, turned an earthy brown. Whosoever dared to impersonate Sakura's crush would share this poor bastard's fate, and he should thank Kami that the pinkette was feeling somewhat merciful.

"How did you know?" Sasuke asked, very impressed.

She looked at him before searching the corpse for supplies. She frowned as she took a second Earth scroll and threw it to her teammate. "Naruto is an expert when it comes to poisons and elixirs. Ask him anything when it comes to either of those topics, and he'll tell you things you didn't even ask about. Since he didn't even know what a cytotoxin is, it was obvious."

Sasuke nodded. He remembered that he was always reading some book about poisons, venoms, and toxins. He also remembered the blonde of Team Seven using a jutsu that allowed him to breathe poisonous gas on the bridge that Tazuna was building. He was thoroughly impressed, even as she was muttering to herself about 'honeydew smell' with the faintest of blush dusting her cheeks.

Sakura cleared her throat. "Let's keep moving."

Sasuke was curious about why she decided to move on without the blonde, but didn't care enough to ask. Besides, it would give him a chance to be alone with her, and he would finally say yes to her incessant dates.

* * *

Naruto looked at the dead snake in front of him. He should probably come with a warning label that read '_Boil Release Blonde Can Cause Heartburn.' _Laughing at his own humor, he turned to find a three man cell of Iwagakure genin.

"Look at this, guys." the female of the trio smiled maliciously. "He looks just like-"

"_Heavenly Spear Kick"_ The other Iwa genin looked in fear as Naruto's foot was literally embedded him her chest, in between her generous breasts. Everything below the knee was visible, protruding from her back. "If you're going to kill someone, just do it and don't try to make a point."

He spun, flinging the corpse from his leg as he rushed towards the male wearing a mask. His expression never changed from surprise. The last one alive was looking at the Yondaime look alike in fear, trembling as though the fear of Kami was forced into him. As if he were looking at Jashin himself. He Iwa genin blinked, and Naruto was gone. He heard a sniffle. Out of the corner of his left eye, he could see Naruto scratching his nose.

"What are you looking at?"

The final Iwa-Nin turned, armed with a kunai. The last thing he saw was the blonde touching his chest as though he was using the Gentle Fist taijutsu style. The last thing he heard was the ominous whisper that alerted him to the end of his life.

"Death Technique: Heart Sever."

Naruto inhaled deeply and cursed as he looked to his pants. Like all pairs he possessed, they were black, but his right pant leg was soaked through with blood. His toes were red, which annoyed him to no end. With a sigh, he searched through the belongings of the dead. Kunai, shuriken, senbon, an umbrella and...Naruto fought the urge to shout in jubilation as he found the Heaven scroll.

Reaching out with his chakra, he tried to see if Sakura and Sasuke were still waiting. They weren't. All of a sudden, a massive killing intent flooded the forest. Scarily enough, the source wasn't even close to him. Worried about his team, Naruto launched himself from his place. Enhanced by his kekkei genkai, he rocketed in the direction he felt their chakra.

* * *

Sasuke and Sakura were staring down the genin from Kusagakure, the killing intent she was giving off suffocating them. She licked her lips provocatively as she stared hungrily at Sasuke, something that made his skin crawl for some reason. He could damn near hear the collective voices of the fan girls that never made it out of the Academy.

'_Let me have your baby, Sasuke-kun.' _the look the genin in front of him seemed to say. He shivered, uncomfortable and afraid.

Despite her trembling, she remembered Naruto's angry words when they first met Zabuza. '_I won't heal a coward.' _She knew it was aimed at the Uchiha, but it hit her hard as well. At that moment, all of the training Naruto gave her came back and she drew he tanto. In a move that was as brave as it was stupid, she rushed the Kusa-Nin. She went for a horizontal slash and somehow managed to catch the kunoichi off guard, slicing her thigh.

The other genin hissed and moved to punch Sakura. She blocked the strike with the flat of her blade and threw her own punch. It landed on the other girl's face, tearing through some of the flesh as though it were paper. The skin under her torn face was sickly pale, her right eye a blazing yellow. The genin from Kusagakure caught Sakura's arm and backhanded her, the force of the strike sending her flying to the tree she and Sasuke originally stood in. She hit the tree with a sickening _thunk_ and sank onto the branch, unmoving. Meanwhile, Sasuke was on his knees, hypnotized by the killing intent that was still aimed at him. With a trembling hand, Sasuke reached into his weapon pouch and pulled out their original Earth scroll. He threw it to the other genin, hoping she would take it and leave.

When he blinked, Naruto was suddenly there, his fist connecting with other genin's face with a satisfying crack. The girl was sent rocketing away from them. The blonde jumped to his team and grabbed Sasuke by the throat, after he conjured a shadow clone to check on and heal Sakura.

"I told you that I won't heal a coward." the blonde snarled, tightening his grip as Sasuke clawed at his hand. "Get up and fight, you fuck!"

He released the other boy as the Kusa genin returned to their immediate sight, a sickening smile on her face. Reaching up, she touched the damage dealt by the blonde and the pinkette. The next moved shocked both boys, as Sakura stirred. The girl started ripping and tearing her face off as though it were nothing more than an elaborate and lifelike mask. She, which was actually a 'he', giggled in a sinister fashion. '_Ku-ku-ku'_ was the sound his giggling made, and it sent shivers racing up and down Sasuke's spin as it pissed Naruto off.

"Good afternoon, Naruto-kun." the man said, caressing the blonde's name like a lusting lover. "It's been a while since I've seen my favorite nephew."

Sasuke looked dumbly at Naruto as the blonde glared at the Snake Sannin. "Of course it has, you giggling prick."

Steam rose up dangerously from Naruto's body, his eyes flashing crimson as they seemed to do when he was angered. Sasuke was still stricken dumb as he stared between his teammate and pale man that strongly resembled a snake. From his golden eyes and slitted pupils, to his obscenely long tongue. He pouted at the blonde.

"Aw, Naruto-kun." the feminine male in a teasing voice. "You're hurting my feelings."

The blonde cracked his knuckles in response. "How about I hurt your body instead?"

"Perhaps another time." he purred before turning his lusting gaze to the Uchiha once more. "I am only here for Sasuke-kun today."

The blonde and his clone stood in front of his teammate with their arms crossed. "He may be a jackass, but he's on my team."

Sasuke's Sharingan activated out of pure rage, and started spinning madly. He pushed the Senju heir aside and rushed the Sannin. Orochimaru looked faintly amused. The snake sage dodged each strike aimed at him with an eerie flexibility. The older man continued to stare into the blazing red eyes of Sasuke's Sharingan. It was what he wanted more than life itself. It was why he betrayed the family that was Team Hiruzen and the little boy he'd come to love as family. He detested his own mortality and sought to achieve immortality. He needed the Sharingan, however, for with its power, he would be unstoppable. A single punch to the sternum was all that was needed to put Sasuke down. Granted, the force of the blow sent him crashing into his original resting place, next to the girl with pink hair.

Naruto rushed forward, leaving his clone to heal the Uchiha. A giggling Orochimaru bent at an unnatural to dodge the _Heavenly Spear Kick_ aimed at his face. A punch was aimed at Naruto's face, but he slapped the fist away and threw a front kick. The blow connected and sent the sannin crashing against the body of the tree, but his body exploded into mud. He looked around for the slippery bastard, but saw nothing. At least until, the pale man's head race towards Sasuke's downed body. He conjured another Shadow Clone as he shot towards his uncle and teammate.

"_Ninja Art: Summoning: Chakra Sealing Chains."_ The clone slammed his hand on the branch he stood on, smiling deviously as whipping chains erupting from beneath the feminine male and wrapped themselves around his unnaturally flexible body.

"_Boil Release: Unrivalled Strength:_ _Erupting Propulsion Fist._" the original blonde felt the steam erupting from his elbow jetting him faster towards Orochimaru's face. The strike, when it landed, sounded with a crack so loud, it seemed to resonate throughout Training Ground Forty Four.

A flash of white, that looked eerily like Kabuto, took the now unconscious sannin and sank into the tree. Naruto felt his legs give out when they were gone; he'd seen Orochimaru do that once before, and while he may not have been the biggest fan of the Uchiha, Naruto would be damned if he allowed his teammate to suffer such a fate. Sasuke looked shaken, seemingly aware that there were people stronger than her could have imagined in the way of his ambition. Sakura smiled at the blonde, glad that he was okay.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"I should be asking you that. What happened while I was gone?"

Sakura sighed. "I killed someone that was impersonating you, and we kept moving until Orochimaru showed up. I tried to fight him; landed a good punch and cut his thigh before I got slapped away. I blocked his punch with my sword, though!"

"I'm proud of you, Sakura." Naruto smiled. "Not bad for only having two weeks of training."

She shook her head. "He was holding back."

"I know," he said. "How are you feeling after your first kill?"

Sakura said nothing and stood. Naruto followed suit but pulled her into a warm embrace as the girl started trembling in his arms, tears rolling down her cheeks. The blonde nodded in understanding. The first kill was always the hardest.

Sasuke looked at the two, wondering the relationship they had. He knew that the girl was more than likely trying to get over her first kill, but in their world, there would be many more. She needed to get over it. The Uchiha sighed, so much for not holding him back.


	12. Chapter 12

Orochimaru felt an emotion that was foreign to him, mingled with the depths of another emotion that was vast as it was fathomless.

As the man trembled with unbridled rage, he looked down at the body of his apprentice. Kabuto was a diamond in the rough, a prodigy when it came to the art of Medical Ninjutsu. Perhaps even more so that his former teammate's spawn. The boy's ability was so advanced that he guide his chakra to the point where he would more than likely be stricken and start the healing process before the damage was even received. Yet, even as he prepared to tank the shot that would have more than likely killed his master, it cost him his life instead.

The only relative bright side, if it could be called that, to this tragedy was the simple fact that they learned that his beloved nephew wasn't as immune to genjutsu as they initially thought. The genjutsu itself was where it seemed as though Orochimaru was stretching his neck. In reality, a Sannin-henged-Kabuto was standing in front of Sasuke, preparing to administer a paralysing serum to the boy so that they could just take a sample of his blood for research prior to administering the _Cursed Seal of Heaven_.

Orochimaru, one of the Sannin and student of the great snake sage of Ryūchi Cave, was livid; oh yes, he was indeed livid.

Still, the pale man looked at the now headless body of Kabuto. As much as the man was a deceptive and manipulative shinobi, he possessed positive emotions. The jubilation in his heart when little Naru-chan took to Fuinjutsu and Juinjutsu as though he'd simply forgotten what he'd learned and was remembering it as he went on. Though Tsunade had not allowed the boy to explore the darker arts that Orochimaru could teach him, she did allow him to learn about the most infamous seal amongst the noble clans of Konohagakure. It was a thing of beauty to watch the boy unravel the secrets of the Hyuga's precious Bird Cage Seal. Of course, Orochimaru had already done it, so he was able to instruct the boy whenever he had trouble with a certain part of the seal.

The sheer pleasure he received when the excitable blonde told him '_Love you, Maru-oji!' _So the magnitude of the death of the boy he considered a son was far graver than anything he'd ever felt still; watching Kabuto's head basically explode from the blonde's punch hit him hard, harder than the effeminate man could have possibly imagined. For the past four days since escaping that damn forest with the body of his protege, he raged around the lab he situated a few miles outside of Konoha.

The man sighed; another thing he could take solace in, was the fact that his nephew underestimated him, just as the Sannin underestimated the blonde. Sasuke still received the _Cursed Seal of Heaven _via one of Orochimaru's many white snakes. Another one had bitten Naruto, injecting a specially crafted venom that was supposed to drain his chakra to dangerously low levels. By this point, the team he sent to infiltrate Konoha should have already gotten hold of Sasuke. A sinister smile curved the man's thin lips as he covered Kabuto with a white sheet.

Orochimaru underestimated his nephew, but he would not make that mistake again. Not this time.

* * *

"_Get the fuck away from him!"_

_Ino, with her Earth Release: Earth Spear activated, loosed a powerful tornado kick to the arm of the bitch that dared to try and slit her koibito's throat. The crack was satisfying to the blonde girl, as was the fact that the dark haired bitch's right arm now hung limply at her side. It was strange, however. The girl with the hitai-ate that bore a musical note only hissed in aggravation. Her eyes were dead as she continued to stare at the unconscious blonde, not even paying Ino the attention that one would normally give the one that broke their arm. Instead, the girl made another mechanical move for her blonde. The uppercut Ino delivered was fierce, knocking the dead-eyed girl off of her feet before returning to the ground with a muffled thud._

_Kin Tsuchi was indeed as dead inside as her eyes portrayed. Their mission, given to them by Orochimaru-sama himself, was to test the skills of Sasuke Uchiha after he received the Cursed Seal of Heaven and report back. Kin, Dosu, and Zaku tailed Team Seven, watching them and waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. Imagine her surprise when she noticed that it wasn't Orochimaru-sama that those Konoha tree-huggers were fighting, but Kabuto. She noticed that he reached for the bridge of his nose in an attempt to push up glasses that weren't there. Her surprise was doubled, then transformed into a murderous rage when that blonde sack of shit with the diamond on his forehead punched Kabuto with enough force to make his head literally explode. Whether they didn't notice, or were caught in a genjutsu, she didn't know. But her lover was dead, and mission be damned, Kin was going to enact her revenge._

_Sakura, with her blade drawn, was warring with another boy from the three-man cell from Otogakure. This boy, with black hair styled similarly to Kakashi-sensei, was giving her a run for her money. Thankfully, she had her training. He held his hand out to perform that strange jutsu that compressed air into a blade, but Sakura acted faster. With an upward sing of her tantō, she relieved the boy of his arm. The pinkette knew she was going to have nightmares about his scream of pure agony, about the blood gushing from the wound, and about the look of shock that the mummy-looking boy gave. That could wait for now, however. Her teammates were in trouble._

_Meanwhile, Ino was trying to keep Kin down. No matter which bones she broke, no matter how many times she knocked the girl off of her feet, she continued to stand and mechanically make her way over to the unconscious blonde. She would have admired the girl's drive, if her koi's life wasn't on the line. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a hard-eyed Sakura slice the dark-haired boy's arm off. It was brutal, bloody. What the hell was Naruto teaching her? In that singular moment of distraction, Kin rushed past Ino. The blonde held up the bird hand seal, ready to end the girl's life, but froze. Everyone had stopped moving, point of fact. _

_Two powerful, and downright evil waterfalls of chakra saturated the air. It became difficult to breathe. Naruto and Sasuke stood, rising slowly as though coming back from the dead in those cheesy horror films Ino loved to watch. Visible purple chakra spiralled around Sasuke, as black flame-like markings tattooed the left side of his body. His Sharingan was active, the two tomoe in either eye were spinning madly, and the look of murderous glee on his face was something that would make even a hardened jonin flinch. That, however, wasn't what made Ino want to wet her pants._

_Naruto had also gone through a change, and it was as drastic as the Uchiha's. His nails had become claws, his canines turned into fangs. The adorable whiskers on his face were more detailed now and his hair was shaggier, giving him a feral appearance. A white tail with a beige tip had appeared from the base of his spine, swaying seductively. His eyes, the orbs of deepest cerulean that Ino loved, had become whirlpools of blood, an eerie crimson that danced with a vicious mirth. Steam was billowing dangerously off of his body, the pure heat overpowering the eerie chill of Sasuke's chakra. Two protrusions formed on either side of his forehead, looking more horns than anything._

_Ino, Sakura, Shikamaru, and Choji, the latter of whom had just shown up were rooted to their respective spots. The team from Oto were going through their own reactions. Dosu was silently freaking out; Orochimaru-sama had not alerted them to the blonde having a power similar to the Cursed Seal of Heaven. Zaku, who'd finally managed to ease the bleeding of his arm, looked thunderous and he was going to take it out on their target. Kin could only see red. The boy that killed her beloved was standing mere feet away from her, and he had the audacity to be smiling. In her anguish, he was the picture of evil serenity, as though he could set the whole of the Elemental Nations ablaze and his only response would be to serve tea to the unfortunate survivors._

"_Dobe," said the Uchiha, a dark smile twisting his features. "I think these Oto-Nin need to be taught a lesson."_

_Naruto's voice filled both Ino and Sakura with a preternatural fear as he spoke. "For once, Uchiha, we agree on something. Who would have ever guessed that Konoha would see another Senju-Uchiha tag team?"_

_It sounded as though multiple people were speaking in unison when the blonde opened his mouth. Ino's jutsu had worn off by this point and she was trembling. Sakura's sword was forgotten, as were the chips that Choji decided to snack on. There was a sound of outrage, and Kin was the first to make a move. She rushed the blonde, kunai in either hand. It was strange, given she usually used senbon. But she wanted him to feel her pain, wanted him to bleed. She wanted him to…_

_A spray of blood pounced on the flesh and bandages of the other members of the Oto cell. Kin continued walking on shaky legs before her headless body crumpled at the feet of the blonde and dark-haired duo. Jaws dropped as Naruto examined the blood that coated his right hand. It was putrid to him, but until he reached somewhere he could wipe it off, he was stuck. Sasuke grunted before vanishing from view and tearing the remaining arm from Zaku. Once again, his scream filled the air of the Forest of Death. In a burst of speed, wherein neither white nor blonde could be seem, Naruto lightly pressed a finger directly over Dosu's heart. When his feet touched the floor, the other boy's body jerked once before red stained the bandages over his mouth. Team Nine had arrived to the scene just in time to see the end of Naruto's attack, and to see Sasuke slapping Zaku across the face with his own arm._

"_Death Technique: Heart Sever."_

_Dosu fell to the ground, still and lifeless. Naruto turned to the newest team that decided to show up. He noticed Tenten, a boy in a hideous green outfit, and a Hyuga that possessed the same arrogant air as the Uchiha. At that moment, Naruto wanted to cripple the boy._

_Arms suddenly wrapped around him. He could smell a floral aroma and knew instantly that it was Ino. His Ino. He stopped, his features reverting back to normal. Almost normal. When Ino looked down, his tail had wrapped around her waist almost possessively. She tightened her hold on him with the faintest of smiles as his tail vanished. _

_Sakura had her tantō in her hand once more, and in a flash of pink, bashed the hilt into the Uchiha's temple, knocking him out cold. The pinkette was afraid, so much so that she flinched violently as Naruto move next to her to pick up Sasuke._

It was why Ino was currently mouth-raping her koibito. Memories of the day prior had haunted her throughout the night. She had seen Naruto fight before, knew that he loved a good fight almost as much as he loved performing a successful operation, but to see him act in such a violent way… it scared her. Naruto was pinned to the bed in the room given to them in the tower that was their destination as Ino violated his mouth. With her tongue, she wrestled with his, fighting for dominance as she straddled his waist. Her dainty hands traveled beneath his shirt as she traced his steel-like abs. She needed this; needed to feel him, that he was okay and was still the lovable blonde nerd that belonged to her.

"I was so scared," she whispered as she broke their kiss and buried her face in his chest, tears racing down her flushed cheeks. "I've never seen you like that before."

Naruto said nothing at first. Part of him had wanted to tell her of his status as a jinchūriki; hell, he wanted to drag her to the depths of his subconscious so that she could meet Kokuō, since the majestic creature had been almost as pivotal in his upbringing as his mother and sister. Almost. But he didn't want to scare her. During their travels, they'd seen how people like him were treated by the places they call home. It was painfully easy for the Senju heir to see himself in their shoes, to be hated, outcast for something he couldn't control. Ino, such a short time, had come to mean a lot to Naruto. It was frightening really; that he would rather fight half of the Elemental Nation to the death with no backup than let her go. Frightening was an understatement.

"I'm sorry, Ino-chan." he pressed a kiss to the crown of her head. "I didn't mean to scare you."

She looked up and met his eyes, pale cornflower on sensual azure. "Can you promise me that it won't happen again."

Naruto Senju never broke his promises. If the poison factory of a blonde uttered the words '_I promise'_, '_You have my word'_, or '_On my honor'_, anything that followed was all but guaranteed to come to pass. Her gaze was unwavering, her breathtaking eyes filled with mingled hope and desperation. It made Naruto feel like a monster for his reply.

With a slow shake of his head. "No, Ino-chan. If your life was in danger, I would gladly go through that transformation again."

The other blonde sighed with a small smile as she rolled off of her koibito. It made her feel warm and fuzzy that he felt so strongly about her. She was damn tempted to admit that she loved him right then and there, but she didn't. Come the morning, they were going to move on to the third phase of the Chunin Exams. In truth, she should be getting rest, but her dorky blonde came first. She got out of the bed and he followed suit, stretching and popping his neck. Naruto groaned at the relief that immediately surged through him; who would have guessed that being pinned and violated by his blonde for upwards of an hour would've given him a crick in the neck.

"I'm a tough girl," she said, pressing her body against his as they stood, wrapping her arms around his neck as his arm snaked around her waist. "You trained me, after all."

With a smile as he gently brushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear, Naruto kissed her forehead. "My duty is to save the flower."

Ino could feel her heart sing and her blood boil with a sudden surge of desire, as a group of butterflies exploded into a frenzy in her stomach. If, at that moment, he wanted to impregnate her, she would have gone through with it happily. Granted, they hadn't done more than have some seriously intense make out sessions, but the fact remained. Ino felt mixed emotions as the door to the room opened and Sakura entered, effectively shattering her mood. Part of Ino was glad that the pinkette decided to make herself known, because she would have more than likely ended up alerting the entire tower to the activities she'd started with her koi, should he continue sweet-talking her. The other part of Ino was absolutely livid at Sakura's most inopportune timing. That Kami be-damned Forehead Girl had a knack for showing up when things between the blonde were starting to get too hot.

Reluctantly, Ino untangled herself from the other blonde before giving a tight lipped smile to her best friend and rival. "How are you feeling Forehead?"

Her viriscent eyes never left Naruto, who was staring at her with a friendly smile. "I'm good. How are you two?"

'_Miffed that you interrupted us, but still glad you did.'_ the Yamanaka heiress thought before saying. "I'm alright and Naruto-kun is indeed normal."

The blonde in question rolled his eyes. "Seriously, I'm fine. But how are you two? Ino told me that you cut that poor bastard's arm off. How are you really doing?"

Sakura shuddered at the memory. She was so cold at the time, she was unfamiliar with herself. Needless to say, she emptied the contents of her stomach shortly after they reached the tower. It didn't help that that Naruto literally made the dark-haired girl's head pop like a balloon filled with viscera, or that Sasuke ripped off that guy's other arm and started abusing him with it.

"I've been better, but I'm just glad I wasn't slapped around. If you hadn't helped me train, I would've been more than useless."

The blonde male chuckled. "I'm glad. And you, Ino-chan? I didn't get a chance to ask before you started mouth-raping me."

"Is it really mouth-rape if you didn't deny me?" she asked innocently.

He paused. She had a very valid point, but he wasn't going to admit it. It was nice to see her so aggressive. Turned him on, point of fact. Sakura blushed prettily at the thought, though the Ino was replaced by a mental image of herself. Naruto cleared his throat rather loudly, more so to distract himself from more impure thoughts about the other blonde.

"Anyway…"

She giggled. "I'm alright. My _Earth Spear_ is overpowered, and _Mud Spore_ is so much fun to use."

As the very first jutsu he taught her, the two earth release jutsu held a special place in her heart. They were also the only ones that she could now use without performing the necessary hand seals. Naruto didn't know that bit, just yet. She planned on surprising him with it. Still, that dark-haired bitch just didn't know when to quit. Broken arm, fractured ribs, and she still kept getting back up to attack her venomous blonde. It was frightening to think that Ino was actually going to kill someone. The jutsu she was preparing to do would have killed the Oto-kunoichi, regardless of where it struck.

"In any case, ladies. Get some rest. Something tells me that we're going to need it tomorrow."

* * *

"Are you serious?"

Though Tsunade was aware of her sensei's plan in terms of the Clan Restoration Act being enacted on her son, but that didn't stop her from wanting to go back to the council room, rip off Danzo's arms and beat him to piss and back with them, then crush his windpipe. She looked through the archives that Hiruzen allowed her access to as his successor and she could find a single damn thing about the Clan Restoration Act. This meant one of two things. One possibility was she overlooked something, which was something she genuinely doubted. The other possibility was that the civilian council tried to find a way to boost their own standing in the village, and decided to indulge in some masturbatory harem fantasy. Either way, she was getting this elder wank fantasy off of her son.

Still, as she looked at the feral woman that was eyeing her seriously, she couldn't help but feel like her Sochi was going to end up attracting more floozies that were going to take him from her. Er, rather, ladies that would shower her beloved son with the love and affection he deserved. Still… a clan head?

"As serious as a kunai to the throat," said Tsume. "There's something about your pup that I can't shake, as embarrassing as it is to admit."

Tsunade snickered as it was how she initially felt about her late lover, Dan. There was just something about him that she could quite put her finger on, but it kept her around him until he toughened up and said yes to her asking him out. To be fair, the buxom kunoichi had quite the forceful personality, more so in her younger years than she did now. If the blonde were being honest, she was only just getting used to Ino being a constant in the Senju compound, though she was wondering why Sakura followed the pair. The mother wasn't oblivious to how the pinkette treated her son, nor was she oblivious to the complete one-eighty her sochi made her perform. Now she had an idea of why, but such behaviour had become common for her about a month and a half before the enacting of the Clan Restoration Act (which she was beginning to believe more and more that such a thing didn't exist).

Polyamory wasn't uncommon in the Elemental Nations; to maintain clans, to start clans, to branch out and combine clans. Polyamory and incest were alive and well practiced in the more noble of clans. Neither were particularly appetizing to Tsunade herself, but to each their own. Still though, she hadn't found anything official. She even sent a few messages to other villages that claimed that they owed Shizune, Naruto, and herself favors. None of them had any official documentation in regards to the CRA, but they did possess marriage certificates that had multiple names. This meant that the Clan Restoration Act didn't exist through official mediums.

That wasn't her main concern at present, however. She and Shizune stared at the feral woman that developed a sudden interest youngest blonde in the Senju household. Shizune was tense, believing that the older woman was planning on corrupting her precious little brother in some manner. It was something both clan heads noticed, but decided not to comment on.

Tsunade was aware of the Inuzuka clan, how their members were more or less equal parts canine and human. It didn't help that their signature jutsu, the _Ninja Art of Beast Mimicry: Four Legs Technique _turned the human feral and caused them to look, act, and move like their ninken. As such, dominance within one's family within the Inuzuka clan was fought for; whether the man or woman wore the pants in their family was determined in single one-on-one combat, and whoever ended up baring their neck was the bottom within the dynamics of their household. It was a system that gave equal opportunities to both male and female, seeing as how all training was equally brutal for both genders. The image of a little blonde girl with the red Inuzuka markings, Naruto's whiskers, and the _Strength of a Hundred_ seal on her forehead popped into Tsunade's mind, and she had differing reactions.

Part of her wanted to squeal at how cute the image was. Part of her wanted nothing to do with that and want to keep her baby boy attached to her hip for all eternity. All of her knew that the latter option was ridiculous, but still. This was her son, they were talking about. Her only son. The buxom blonde heaved a sigh. Shizune knew what that sigh meant and excused herself before she brought shame to her master's name.

"Come with me to the next part of the Exams in the morning. You can watch him perform and tell me for certain then." Tsunade looked into the woman's eyes; warm honey to kind black. "Your son is participating as well, right?"

She nodded. "He is and we'll be there."

* * *

The next portion of the Chunin Exams was one-on-one combat in between the genin, but since there was a decent amount of contenders, this would be regarded as the preliminary round. The victors would move on to the finals, which would be the end game of the exams. Naruto and Kiba noticed their respective mothers engaged in a friendly conversation before the Sandaime went into his speech about the true reason behind the exams. It was noble, Naruto thought, but not enough. For if someone want to wage war, they would do so and showcasing a villages might only led to the capture and breeding of the powerful. Regards, the boy smiled up at Zabuza who was acting in place of Hayate as the proctor since he was still recovering from the operation.

The majority of the fights were of little interest to Naruto; Sasuke claimed victory over the chakra leech named Yoroi. Shino embarrassed the pliable Misumi. Shikamaru forfeited when he learned that he was to fight Gaara. Neji nearly killed Hinata, a member of his own family, but Naruto appeared between them and caught the boy's hand before he could deliver the finishing blow; this didn't help the blonde not want to bury the Hyuga. If anything, the fact that he would strike down a member of his own family made him want to plant him firmly in the ground, but he didn't. Kiba against Choji was a rather interesting match. The speedy Inuzuka ran literal circles around the powerful Akimichi, until the plump boy whipped out his signature technique and turned into a human cannon ball. He flattened Kiba who'd managed to underestimate the speed of the boy in his Human Boulder form.

The very next fight, being third from last, was between Ino Yamanaka and Tenten. The blonde Senju knew precious little about the girl he still referred to as Panda-chan, but when the match started, it was already clear who was going to win.

Zabuza had barely announced the start of the match when Tenten whipped out two scrolls and opened them while twirling elegantly. Team Nine as well as Team Eight thought the girl was going to be skewered since she just stood there. The rapid and repetitive metallic clang drew everyone's eyes to Ino.

"_Earth Release: Earth Spear."_ She looked down at her close which hadn't covered her clothes before turning her gaze to Naruto who was grinning down at her. "Ah, damn it, my outfit! Koi, take me shopping."

All seemed to stop as the kunoichi in the room looked at her incredulously. Did she really just…? In the stands, Naruto was chuckling darkly before he said something that made the kunoichi look even more confused.

"Win first."

The blonde girl cracked her neck and vanished in a burst of speed. When she reappeared, the blonde was behind Tenten and was in the middle of performing a deadly tornado kick. Tenten conjured a sword from another scroll and blocked the attack. The impact of her darkened foot meeting with the chakra conductive metal of Tenten's sword resulted in a loud ring as she weapons mistress was set skidding back. Ino slammed her hand down before the ground shook. Mud was conjured seemingly out of thin air, flowing like a powerful mudslide towards that other girl.

_"Earth Release: Mud Spore."_

Tenten jumped and applied the necessary chakra to stick to the wall. She fished out two more scrolls and setting them vertically on either side of her. It was difficult since she had to imbue the scrolls with extra chakra. The mud flow ebbed, and the girl had to grab her scrolls and rocket to the now dry ground as the blonde appeared in front of her, her arm shoulder deep in the wall where Tenten once stood.

Running through her own hand seals before crossing her hands, Tenten realized that she had been underestimating the kunoichi before her. Her mind flashed to when they first met, all that time ago in front of Konoha Hospital. She didn't feel anything like a serious kunoichi; she was a joke, a disgrace to the term. If she had to guess, the other blonde was the key to her opponents change. Tenten wondered if he would train with her as well.

The weapons mistress jumped, spinning as she unravelled her scrolls. _"Ninja Art: Rising Twin Dragons."_

Her Earth Spear active once more, Ino starting running through another set of hand seals as various bladed weaponry bounced harmlessly off of her diamond like flesh. _"Earth Release: Earth and Stone Dragon."_

A dragon-like construct erupted from the ground below and rushed angrily at the airborne girl. As it was made of stone, her myriad of weapons did nothing to effect it. Resorting to the substitution technique, she managed to get away from the creature as it crumbled into nothing. When she turned, she could only gasp as a blackened fist crashed into her face, sending her bouncing off of the ground. Tenten didn't stand back up.

Team Ten, Naruto and Sakura cheered. Might Guy and Rock Lee were gobsmacked. Tenten was not easily defeated. So for this blonde girl to just take her out with ease was both beautiful and terrifying. If Lee wasn't so devoted to Sakura, he would have more than likely fallen in love with the Yamanaka clan heiress right then and there. But he was blessed by Kami as his love was up next.

Sakura stood before a girl named Temari. She was one of the Suna trio that tried to bully Konohamaru before Naruto and that red haired boy set them straight. The ash blonde girl drew her giant folding fan, the art of tessenjutsu her forte. Sakura, on the other, drew her sword. Zabuza started the match, but neither kunoichi made the first move.

"Sakura-chan."

All eyes went to Naruto who looked oddly proud. "Take them off."

A few kunoichi blushed in an embarrassed rage before they felt a spike of chakra coming from the pinkette. Thoughts of striking the supposedly perverted blonde ebbed when horizontal and vertical black markings decorated her body before glowing brightly and fading with a loud _snap! _Weighted seals had been removed and now Sakura could finally let loose. With the speed of a veteran, she ran through hand seals that ended in tiger.

"_Water Release: Water-Heavens Convergence." _Dozens of hundreds of orbs of water, which were made from moisture pulled from the atmosphere, came into being, floating around the pinkette as if awaiting her command.

All were surprised, none more than the jonin instructors who looked incredulously at Kakashi, who was looking at his blonde pupil the same way. Their eyes followed his and they had a similar thought. '_No fucking way.'_

Sakura vanished before reappearing in the spot she once stood, looking as though she never left. Except more and more copies of Sakura were appearing at some place on the battle ground. Temari opened her fan to the third moon, excited at the prospect of fighting a proper kunoichi. Meanwhile, Naruto's grin was turned into a full blown smile. He wasn't expecting her to master the Afterimage Clone by this point. That wasn't to say that he lacked faith in her, but the amount of speed required to create solid afterimages was astounding. He was fast enough to keep up, but he couldn't make solid afterimages. Saying that he was proud was an understatement.

The pinkette and her army of cherry blossoms started walking towards the ash-blonde. Temari was a little creeped out; the girl looked so cold that it was reminiscent of Gaara, but she lacked the killing intent. That's why she was going to lose.

_"Wind Release: Wind Scythe."_ She swung her fan horizontal, kicking up a powerful chakra laced wind tunnel. Blades of wind collided with each other, sharpening as they went along and bisected multiple clones along with the small spheres of water. Nothing more happened however.

Sakura appeared beside the blonde, crouched low and coiled to strike. Temari closed her fan and planted it firmly before Sakura could cut her, only to notice another Sakura on the other side of her. Bursting wind chakra from her very body, Temari backpedaled and opened her fan once again. She was about to swing it, but a neat cut ran through the middle of her weapon. When the Suna-kunoichi looked up, she could see Sakura's blade had a spiralling torrent of water clinging to it.

"_Water Release: Water Forge Technique."_ She threw the blade up before running through another set of hand seals and cupping her hands in front of her face. "_Water Release: Water Trumpet."_

The pinkette launched a massive jet of water from her mouth that collided mercilessly with the ash-blonde. The other girl collided hard with the wall and slumped. Zabuza named Sakura the winner and the sword came down. Sakura caught and gave a single rudimentary swing to rid it of the whirling water chakra. When she rejoined the other genin, Zabuza stepped forward.

"The final fight of the preliminaries is Rock Lee versus Naruto Senju."


	13. Chapter 13

"_Can you explain it again, Kaa-san?"_

_Tsunade looked at her normally hyper blonde as he worked on an antidote for his hallucinogen; it wasn't something that was necessary at the moment, but for some reason he seemed to learn more while he was doing something else. Naruto Senju was a tactile learner that needed to keep his hands busy when listening to lectures that didn't have a hands-on opportunity. The lesson they were working on, for example, was a discussion on taijutsu styles._

"_The most basic taijutsu style is called the 'Strong Fist' and it focuses on external damage; broken bones and using force to render an opponent unconscious. Then we have several variations of the Strong Fist, one of which is our own 'Solid Gold Fist', which is the perfect combination of medical ninjutsu and taijutsu."_

_Putting down his pen and closing his notebook, Naruto looked into his mother's warm, honey colored eyes and scrunched his nose in the manner he always did when he was deep in thought. It wasn't the first time he learned about taijutsu, but as his Uncle Orochimaru had once told him 'The Elite do not neglect the basics.' He wanted to be prepared for what was out there and thus far he had only taken out untrained bandits and dishonored samurai. But with the mention of the Senju Solid Gold Fist came the thought of his own personal style that was a gift from Ko-chan. Through her, he gained the Boil Release kekkei genkai, and the ability to use the taijutsu style unique to her jinchuriki; Boil Release: Unrivalled Strength. Whereas the Solid Gold Fist focused on dealing massive damage with explosive chakra control and essentially becoming a tank due to the constant healing of the user, the Unrivalled Strength style was a combination of thunderous strength and lightning speed. _

"_Shizune even has her own fighting style that she will teach you when you get older."_

_Those words had the desired effect; little Naru-chan was instantly ripped from his own thoughts as his eyes shone with barely concealed excitement. The blonde Sannin giggled at her son as she nodded wisely with her eyes closed and arms folded beneath her generous bust._

"_Yes, indeed." said the mother dramatically. "Her taijutsu style is based off of the Hyuga Clan's Gentle Fist. Oddly enough, she hasn't given the style a name, but she calls the techniques used 'Death Techniques'. But that's enough for today. Go ahead a shower so we can have dinner; Shizune is making ramen tonight."_

_The tiny boy was gone so fast, the older blonde would swear that she could see an afterimage sitting where he once did. With an amused chuckle, brown-eyed mother stood and stretched before quitting the room as well. Her son's obsession with ramen was as unhealthy as her former addiction to sake._

* * *

"Ichi-kun,"

Inoichi Yamanaka looked down at the gorgeous brunette that had seduced his mind and stolen his heart all those years ago. Akemi Yamanaka stared up at him with half-lidded eyes. The clan head felt his cock harden instantly. He couldn't get enough of his wife and though they both missed their daughter's near constant presence in the house, her relationship with the Senju heir had given them more time to show each other that the physical attraction was still there and burning hotter than the sun. They had been making love for roughly an hour and a half; Akemi was quite insatiable at times. The wife of the clan head allowed her cool hand to grasp her husband's member and start stroking it gently.

"I want to train our daughter," she whispered in between scorching kisses she planted on his neck. "I believe she's become serious enough to claim the other half of her birthright."

Inoichi felt his mind hazing over as his wife started to straddle him while continuing to stroke his middle-man. He knew that his Akemi was once a kunoichi, a powerful one at that, but it was easy to forget it. He nodded as she pressed her lips to his in a passionate kiss, her hand guiding his erection into her depths. There was a reason Akemi Yamanaka owned a flower shop; may Konoha fear the mother of the Yamanaka clan heiress.

* * *

Shockwaves reverberated throughout the preliminary stage, growing louder and louder still with each strike thrown. Lee had removed his leg weights while Naruto began releasing thick steam that allowed him to easily keep up with the other boy. The initial start to their battle was rather slow as the pair engaged in a heated taijutsu competition. The medical prodigy and the Strong Fist prodigy were evenly matched, trading blows and blocking what could be blocked, all the while urging each other to hit harder.

Finally, they slowed just enough for the onlookers to catch a glimpse of what was going on. Lee appeared in front of Naruto, in the middle of a perfectly executed tornado kick. Naruto didn't take time to admire the other genin's form as he grabbed him by the ankle and slammed him to the ground. The bushy-browed genin spun and began attacking with a flurry of kicks while walking on his hands with an ease acquired from regular practice. The blonde had only just managed to block the fancy footwork before the green clad shinobi's right foot hooked behind his neck and brought him into a powerful blow from the left that connected with his chin.

Airborne, Naruto righted himself and spun as he began his descent. Lee launched himself after his opponent only to find himself on the end of a vicious axe kick that sent him rocketting back to the stage floor. Once the Senju heir landed, he charged at the exuberant youth, throwing a straight punch that was blocked and counter by a spinning elbow. Just barely catching the elbow, he tried to knee the other bow in the ribs, only for his own attack to be caught as well.

"Your flames of youth are most impressive, Naruto-kun." Lee shouted, the brightest of smiles gracing his features.

Naruto ducked his roundhouse kick before retaliating with a bone-shattering uppercut. "Thanks. You're damn good, too. I wouldn't mind sparring with you from time to time."

Before Lee could go too high, Naruto grabbed him by the ankle and slammed him back to the floor. He launched himself into the air and spun before falling with his right leg over his head.

"_Heavenly Foot of Pain." _

Lee rolled to his feet and managed to escape the attack mere seconds before Naruto brought his foot down and destroyed a portion of the ground below. In the stands, Ino was smiling with pride as she snuggled into the haori that her koibito draped around her shoulders before he made his descent to the arena floor. Apparently it was his favorite one, despite him having one for every day of the week. Literally. She'd seen it; made a plan to 'borrow' a few for 'scientific purposes', point of fact. Beside her, Sakura was watching him with the look of something fathomless and deep, a soft blush coloring her cheeks as she watched the walking poison factory trade blows with the mini-Might Guy.

Asuma and Kurenai watched in astonishment at the fight taking place. Asuma had seen the kid fight, though only in brief spars against Ino during which he held back. If this match was anything to go on, he held way back and Asuma had a sinking suspicion that he was still holding back. He hadn't used any jutsu aside from the single kekkei genkai that he used to augment his already insane speed and physical strength. Meanwhile Kurenai had been a bit skeptical when Asuma had told her about the insanity that was his student's boyfriend. Now watching him and Guy's student literally tear up the arena with nothing but taijutsu, she found herself a little scared.

That wasn't helped when Naruto and Lee took stances away from each other. Guy's clone had his arms crossed in front of his face. The air around him started distorting due to the heat his body was giving off as his skin turned red as veins began bulging around his body. His hair rose and remained standing on end, his eyes losing their dark pupils. A green aura surrounded him, his chakra becoming visible within the aura. The jonin looked to Guy with looks of varying levels of incredulity.

"You didn't actually teach him the Eight Gates Formation." Kakashi prayed that his friend and self proclaimed rival wasn't really that much of an idiot.

Still, Might Guy said nothing, opting to merely watch the end of the match unfold. The Handsome and Noble Blue Beast of Konoha knew for a fact that the young Senju would have a way to counter this. The Eight Gates Formation put a strain on the body and bones, tearing muscle tissue and, depending on which gates are opened, kill the user. That was the reason that Guy hadn't taught his student the secret to unlocking the final gate.

"_Eight Gates: Gate of Life: Open." _

Naruto watched the transformation take place with excitement boiling over. Steam began billowing thicker off of his flesh, causing the arena to heat up significantly. Unlike his initial use, the steam rose to the roof of the arena and clung desperately to the atmosphere. His sun kissed flesh seemed to have a minor glow about it and when he exhaled, a jet of thin steam flowed from between his lips.

"_Boil Release: Unrivalled Strength: Second Step."_

Both genin vanished from perception and all that could be heard were the shockwaves of cleanly landed blows and the crunching of bones. Suddenly, Naruto was visible in midair with blood flying from his mouth. Ino and Sakura gasped, only to watch in horror as the blonde was suddenly ragdolled by an invisible force. Every blow that was struck seemed to sound worse than the last.

"_Eight Gates: Gate of Pain: Open."_ Lee's speed increased as he continued to batter the blonde until his own nose was bleeding from the strain. "_Reverse Lotus!"_

Naruto opened his eyes to find himself enshrouded in darkness. Lee had wrapped him in the bandages that adorned his arms. There was the briefest sensation of being pulled before there was nothing but devastating pain that caused him to blackout temporarily as he hit the ground. Lee landed gracefully, only managing to remain on his feet through sheer willpower. All was still, and a shell shocked Zabuza moved to call the match before a dense feeling saturated the air. Instantly, Team Ten and Sakura were on edge, having felt this power once before. There was a subtle difference in the feeling, however, as it didn't feel as sinister as it did in the Forest of Death

Chakra exploded from the motionless blonde as the diamond seal on his forehead unravelled. His bones cracked loudly as they snapped back into place, the lacerations on his flesh closed. The damage was steadily being reversed as the Senju heir stood. His hands were coated in chakra so concentrated, it was visible. Smooth black lines trailed down either side of his face from the Strength of a Hundred Seal, before crossing on his neck and arms, moving lower still to form an odd yet intricate pattern on his exposed muscular torso.

"_Ninja Art of Creation Rebirth-Strength of a Hundred Technique."_ Naruto opened his ultramarine eyes and smiled kindly at his opponent, who lowered himself into his Strong Fist Stance. "_Mitotic Regeneration: Solid Gold Fist."_

Lee made the first move, suddenly appearing in front of Naruto who ducked under his straight punch. He countered with a blurry chakra laced back fist, before grabbing the other boy by his throat and slamming him onto the ground. The force was so great, he bounced high enough for the blonde to grab his leg, swing him above his head, and slam him onto his face. Rock Lee struggled to stand, but stayed on the ground, the gates he opened forcing themselves closed.

With easy strides, the Senju heir made his way to downed taijutsu prodigy. Might Guy was suddenly in front of him, intent on stopping his advance. He blinked in surprise when he realized that the son of Tsunade was already kneeling beside Lee. Carefully, he rolled the boy onto his back and touched his forehead. Lee's breathing was shallow, the damage done to his body at levels that were insane. Moving his chakra, Naruto felt the power of the Mitotic Regeneration moving into the exuberant youth, righting the damage done to him from what was a mixture of the fight and what had to be a last resort technique. Within seconds, Lee's breathing evened out and deepened. Naruto left him to Guy, deciding that he would be alright as he deactivated the technique.

"The winner is Naruto Senju." Zabuza called finally, looking at the boy that broke his spine in a new light. "Will the victors of the previous matches come to the arena floor."

Ino and Sakura were the first to land, with the blonde kunoichi returning the haori with a blush. He was okay and in control; she couldn't ask for more. The others joined not soon after, the foreign shinobi eying Naruto in both fear and apprehension. After a short speech from the Sandaime, the winners drew numbers. The matches for the finals were shown after a few moments and the genin were dismissed for a month to train for the finals.

* * *

"That was insane!" Sakura was bouncing on the balls of her feet in excitement as Ino clung to Naruto's right arm. "I've never seen you fight like that."

The blue-eyed Senju rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment with a slight smile. "Both of your fights were nothing to scoff at. Tenten and Temari didn't see that ass-kicking coming. I'm so proud of you."

He gave Ino a tender kiss, then gave Sakura a side hug since Ino was still holding onto his dominant arm. The trio came up to the Yamanaka compound and entered the main house with smiles. As they entered the kitchen, they all saw Inoichi holding his wife from behind, his arms wrapped around her waist, as Akemi giggled at her husband, pressing back against him. The medic in Naruto and Sakura instantly noticed the deep blushed adorning their faces. Ino, who knew her parents almost as well as they knew her, was already aware of what happened. Sure, they were always lovey-dovey, but this only happened after…

The Yamanaka heiress shuddered as she willed her mind away from that train of thought, before her conscious mind was assaulted by images of her parents replaced by her and Naruto. She blushed profusely, before releasing her grasp on her blonde.

"Kaa-san, Tou-san." Ino coughed. "We're home."

Husband and wife turned to find the trio; a blushing Ino, a flustered Sakura, and a confused looking Naruto. They chuckled at them before Inoichi nipped his wife's ear and released her to grab a drink from the fridge. Her quiet moan was just loud enough to be heard by the genin trio. Clearing her throat, Akemi turned to the trio and smiled kindly.

"How did it go?"

Ino, her thoughts and embarrassment forgotten, began bouncing excitedly. "It went great. The three of us made it to the Finals and we have a month to train. Will I be learning more clan techniques, or do I get to train with Naruto?"

"Clan techniques, my little Sunflower." Inoichi smiled as he stood beside his still blushing brunette. "I'm sure Naruto will be doing his own training."

Ino pouted. Naruto chuckled and pressed his lips to her temple. Akemi smiled as her daughter pressed herself closer to the Senju heir. Sakura looked away with barely concealed irritation.

"So are we going to start tomorrow?"

Akemi shook her head. "We'll be leaving after lunch. We have to travel a bit for your training."

Ino was confused but knew better than to question her mother. With a nod, she walked the Senju-Haruno duo to the door. Once again, Ino kissed her boyfriend, wrapping her arms around his neck. Naruto growled, deepening their kiss rather hungrily before releasing her. He could swear that he could hear her mother giggling, though whether it was at them or because she and Inoichi were doing the same thing, he wasn't entirely sure. The need for oxygen became too great and they seperated, but Ino pecked his lips once more, knowing that she wouldn't see him for a month.

"Don't push yourself too hard, Blondie." Naruto teased.

Ino rolled her eyes but gave a small smile. "Whatever, Whiskers. You better wow me in the Finals."

* * *

_Yugao Uzuki found herself growing steadily more restless as she and Hayate were being guided by a nurse to the room that Naruto Senju had reserved for the operation. The nurse, an attractive brunette woman that wore her hair in an elegant bun, pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose as she knocked on the closed door they stopped in front of._

"_Enter."_

_The blonde and his pink haired companion were currently discussing the various kinds of toxins and the chemical compound of their antidotes. From what it sounded like, the Senju boy was actually reviewing with the other kunoichi, catechizing her as she looked through a textbook that he provided her. _

"_Great job, Sakura." he smiled. "For this operation, I'll be using a technique I created a while back."_

_The flames of determination burning brightly in her viridescent eyes, the pinkette nodded as the duo turned to the nurse and patients. Naruto instructed Hayate to the operation table, and after the older man removed his shirt, the young medic went to work. Sakura wheeled a bowl of concentrated medicinal fluids over to the right side of her blonde friend. With soothing green medical chakra coating his hands via the Mystical Palm Technique, Naruto scanned the shinobi's torso for where the anomaly could lie. _

"_Alright, so there's good news and bad news." spoke Naruto with a frown after a moment of confirming his findings. "The bad news is that the toxin has infected your lungs, which is what is causing your coughing fits. The good news is the fact that your lungs haven't absorbed the toxin. Whoever created it seemed to be an amateur, but I'll be able to determine more after I remove it."_

"_What does it do?" asked Yugao before Sakura had the chance. _

_Naruto frowned as he prepared vials to take samples and unsealed his poisoner's kit. "It was meant to weaken the body by attacking the respiratory system. From what I can tell so far, the near constant channeling of chakra throughout the body is one of the only reasons you haven't ended up on my table earlier."_

_Moving back to the operation, he had Yugao help her lover onto his stomach before giving him a pillow to rest his head on. Blue chakra coated his hands and he moved his palms directly over his lungs, carefully making two inch incisions on either side of the man's back. The chakra scalpel faded as Naruto used his chakra to manipulate the medicinal fluid resting the bowl beside him. _

_With a practiced ease, the Senju heir pushed the fluid through the incision and manipulated it out of the other. Yugao and Sakura could see a dark fluid trapped in the healing liquid. Without hand seals, Naruto conjured a shadow clone to deal with the cataloging of the toxin as he focused on healing the damage internal, then external tissue of the kenjutsu master._

_Taking a deep breath and with help from Yugao, Hayate sat up and watched as Naruto put together an antidote with supplies in his kit. The prodigy was muttering about 'good poison going to waste,' and 'damn amateurs,' much to the entertainment of the Sakura._

"_What makes you say that the creator is an amateur?" she asked with a furrowed brow._

_Naruto turned to her with a rather serious expression, and she realized that she goofed by invoking the inner nerd of her venomous teammate. "If created properly, or even administered properly, Hayate-san would not have survived as long as he did."_

_Yugao stiffened at the words of the blonde clan heir. She didn't doubt his words, and as he handed Hayate the bitter antidote, she couldn't help but fear the worse for the love of her life. Naruto handed her three more vials of the murky, bitter liquid. _

"_Make sure he drinks one each week for the next three weeks and come back for me make sure he's truly fine."_

Yugao couldn't help but smile at the memory as Sakura worked on some advanced kata with a katana that Naruto purchased for her as a gift for making it to the finals. Naruto didn't ask for any payment, despite Yugao borderline throwing ryo at him. Instead, he asked for her to train his pink haired friend in the way of the sword. The girl was formidable with a tantō, and now armed with a standard katana she would be still more dangerous to those that stood against her.

"That will be enough for today, Sakura-san." said the Anbu. "You did great."

The pinkette bowed in respect to her sensei for the month. "Thank you, Yugao-sensei. I'll see you tomorrow."

* * *

The Yamanaka mother-daughter duo entered the Land of Vegetables after two days of high speed travel. In fact, Ino was unaware that Akemi was trained as shinobi; she thought her brunette of a mother was merely a regal civilian that owned a flower shop. There were dozens of questions that Ino had, but her mother didn't allow her to ask them. Something that stood out to her was the reaction that Akemi gave when they entered the small village in the center of the country; the woman inhaled deeply and exhaled with wistful sigh.

'_They don't have air this clean in Konoha,'_ the woman said, her smile was one that bled nostalgia. '_I only wish your father were with us right now.'_

Then there was the small fact that everyone referred to her mother as 'Akemi-sama' and her as 'The Honorable Daughter'. Still, Akemi refused to answer her daughter's wealth of questions but rather, told her to enjoy the crisp, clean air of the mountainous region.

Ino found herself being woken up at the crack of dawn by her mother. Dressing quickly, she followed the older barefoot woman to the top of the hill on the outskirts of the small village. Ino didn't know how to feel about this; she still had an impossible amount of questions, namely why there were here specifically, and why everyone referred to in reverence and with the utmost respect in their voices. But the blonde kunoichi held her tongue as her mother moved away from her.

"My beloved daughter," started Akemi, sounding suddenly younger than she did before arriving in the Land of Vegetables. "You don't understand how proud of you I am. Of course, I've always been proud of you, but ever since you've been taking your craft seriously, I have started to see even more of myself in you."

A breeze kicked up, causing the emerald blades of grass to dance serenely. Ino looked around, not minding the light of the rising sun causing her mother to look more like a divine entity than a mortal. What she did notice, however, was the fact that the woman that gave birth to her looked younger. The few wrinkles caused by the stress of running a business, being the wife of a clan head, and raising a daughter vanished. It was even to make Ino take a step back in surprise. What the hell was her mother?

"The name of our clan is never spoken aloud, for it has been lost to time. However there is a power in our blood that is equal to the Senju and the Uchiha." said the mother, her voice thick with the power of which she spoke. "It's time for you to claim your birthright. Haven't you ever wondered why, out of all of the businesses to start, a flower shop?"

Ino didn't answer; this was too much to take in, but she continued to listen intently. Her mother took a single step, pressing her dainty, bare foot onto the grass and channeling her chakra into the ground. Immediately, various flowers bloomed around her, covering the hilltop in scarlet and amethyst. The genin's jaw dropped. It was then that the blonde remembered something her venomous koibito said. '_My duty is to save the flower,'_

"The Flower Ninja Art," smiled Inoichi's wife. "This is the power of our clan. Our flower can cut kunai, cast genjutsu, and even heal grievous wounds. Now, my precious Ino-chan, let's show Konoha the power of the Land of Vegetables."


End file.
